Rapunzel Goes Home
by bStormhands
Summary: Where Rapunzel proves she is the Lost Princess. The King saves Eugene and the PubThugs. Max's role in saving the day. Rapunzel learns her true name. They deal with their feelings about Gothel. And live happily ever after. Go read the extended edition instead.
1. Chap 1 Leaving the Tower

After a long wonderful kiss, Rapunzel broke off the kiss and hit Eugene with her fist, "Why did you do that! Why did you leave me!" she cried.

He caught her arm, the shackle clanking, "Ouch, That wasn't my idea. The Stabbington brothers knocked me out, tied me to the boat and shoved me off. They knew about you and your hair. I tried to warn you but they hit almost as hard as you do." He rubbed his head with his free hand.

"I didn't mean that, why did you cut my hair? I couldn't heal you. You were dying and I couldn't do anything about it!. You died!" Rapunzel was crying hard now.

Taking her in his arms. "I'm sorry, death was better then seeing you enslave yourself to your mother. If you were free I knew you'd be okay, I saw how wonderful you became when you were free. You are too amazing to leave trapped in a tower forever. I love you too much to let you do that even to save my own life."

Rapunzel looked somewhat mollified, "And why did you come back?"

"At first, because I thought the Stabbington Brothers had taken you. To sell you as a slave. I couldn't allow that. I was pacing my cell going crazy with worry about you, how had they known? What they would do to you even before selling you?"

"Then the guards came. They were going to hang me. I just wasn't surprised about that, I had stolen the Crown of the Lost Princess after all, but as they were taking me to the gallows I saw the Stabbington brothers in another cell. I was so angry at them that I knocked away the guards and grabbed Dirk. They told me an old lady had told them about you. It took me a second but I realized that they must have meant your mother. You were being betrayed by your own mother. I tried to tell the guards but they swarmed me, then the Pub Thugs were breaking me out. Max raced me here to save you. Your mother was betraying you and she would have killed you in the end. I'm sorry." He touched her cheek.

"She wouldn't have killed me that would have destroyed the power of my hair and that would have killed her too. And she isn't … wasn't my mother." Glancing toward the window.

"She's not? Then who..."

"Actually, I am the Lost Princess." Moving some hair that wasn't in her face.

Eugene gave her an incredulous look.

"No, really, I figured it out this morning, because of you really. That little sigil banner you got me helped me remember who I am. Then I told Mother, I was so angry at her I told her I would never let her use my hair again and then she attacked me and chained me up. She was just getting ready to take me somewhere else when you showed up."

"If you really are the Lost Princess then we'd better get you back to the kingdom, but first, do you know where the key to these shackles are?"

"She put it in her bodice, I guess I better go down and get it." She said pensively, looking out the window and then to the hatch.

"I know it must be hard, be brave, you can do it." Eugene gave her a hug. Pascal padded over and gave her encouragement.

Rapunzel steeled herself and went down the ladder to the spiral stairs. Once past the first turn there was no light, she knew it was safe as she had climbed the stairs only hours ago but she shivered remembering when they had been trapped in the mine.

Coming around the side of the tower she saw the pile of dirty clothes that were all that was left of Mother. Rapunzel slowly knelt. Gently lifting the neck of the red dress she saw a glint of metal, slowly she reached in and found the key, she quickly pulled the key out and let the dress collapse.

As her body gave an uncontrollable shake, she heard the panting. It was Maximus, standing a little ways off. He was sweating and panting, his head lowered.

"Oh, Maximus. Are you alright?"

Max's look told her that he was not.

"If I still had my hair I could help you. Wait, my tears helped Eugene, maybe they'll help you."

She thought about how she had lost the person who had raised her, not just to death but to betrayal, and also how she had lost Eugene who loved her in a different, deeper way. How she had never known her true parents and all that they had missed. The tears came and she sang the healing incantation:

Flower gleam and glow

Let your power shine

Make the clock reverse

Bring back what once was mine

What once was mine

Heal what has been hurt

Change the fates' design

Save what has been lost

Bring back what once was mine

What once was mine.

But there was no glow or light, and Max continued to sweat and pant. "Oh, I'm so sorry Maximus. It didn't work, I don't know how to help you."

Feeling the frustration and despair welling up inside her she felt the key in her clenched fist. Looking blankly at it for a moment Rapunzel said, "Oh wait, Eugene might know, I'll be right back." She hurried around the tower and back up the stairs.

Panting herself, Rapunzel soon emerged at the top of the ladder. Eugene was sitting on the stairs to her room with Pascal on his knee. "I was wondering what was taking so long."

"Eugene, Maximus is not feeling well. He is panting and sweating badly and he looks bad. I tried healing him with my tears like I did you but it didn't work. I don't know what to do."

"Oh, no. I think he may have overextended himself, I asked him to show me how fast he could run so we could save you. And boy did he. It was the fastest I've ever gone. Here, give me the key, we need some wool to rub him down with, and some apples would be a good idea, if you have any."

Tossing him the key Rapunzel moved to the kitchen and filled a basket with apples from the barrel, then went to the chest with the winter blankets and gathered those. Helping Pascal onto her shoulder they all went down together.

They found Maximus in the same place. He had stopped panting but was still soaked with sweat and his legs looked like they were shaking.

"Here, take a blanket and rub him down, we need to dry him off." said Eugene to Rapunzel. To Max he said, "It's going to be fine, Max. We're here for you."

As Rapunzel and Eugene rubbed him down, Pascal rolled an apple over to Max. Max just looked at it, but with some encouraging motions from Pascal he took it and slowly ate it.

By the time they were done rubbing him down Max was looking better, but still seemed very tired.

"Well, that's the best we can do for him with what we have. Can you make it to the stream for a drink?"asked Eugene. Moving slowly they lead Max to the stream and he gratefully drank his fill.

"We are going to have to get him back to the palace where they can take proper care of him, but it will take most of the day to get there. We'll have to walk him slowly so he doesn't get hurt. You know, he is a very smart horse. He got the thugs from the Snuggly Duckling to break me out of prison and then ran me here as fast as he could. After chasing me for the last couple of days, I am not surprised he is tired. You're a good, brave horse. Thank you." Eugene addressed Max and Max nuzzled him back.

"And we have to get you back to the palace too, since you are the Lost Princess." Max gave Eugene a sharp look. "Well, that is what she told me, after she brought me back from being dead." Max gave him a disbelieving look and turned to look at Rapunzel.

"It's true. I figured it out this morning. I confronted Mother about it and she confirmed it."

Max stared at her for a moment and then wrapped his neck around her for a hug. Rapunzel hugged him back. Max began to walk with his head held higher.


	2. Chap 2 Getting into the Palace

"So you said something about healing me with your tears." asked Eugene as they passed under the vines.

"Well, that is all I can think it was. I tried the incantation but it wasn't working. Then you stopped me and told me I was your new dream," Rapunzel clasped his hand close to her, "and I said you were mine. And then you died. I finished the incantation and I started crying. I had just lost everyone in my life, Mother and you. I couldn't fix it. It hurt so much. Then lights started to come from your wound and surrounded us, after they faded you started breathing again." She smiled, but then her face fell. "But I think that was the last bit of magic in me. I tried crying and singing to heal Maximus but nothing happened." She gave poor exhausted Max a rub on the neck.

"I'm sorry, but we'll be fine."

"So Goldie, are you going to go all bipolar on me this trip, too?"

"I don't know. I lost and gained so much in so short a time that I am not sure how I feel, except so very tired, we walked home last night without stopping." said Rapunzel trying not to drag her feet.

They are picking their way around the tree, that normally Maximus jumped through easily, but he was still so tired that they had to find another way.

"So, how am I going to meet my parents? Do I just go up to the castle and announce that I am the Lost Princess?" asked Rapunzel.

"I guess, I know more about the …your crow n then about that. I do know that there have been girls who've claimed to be the Lost Princess, but they weren't able to pass the test and got sent away."

"Test, what test?" her hands fluttered near her shoulder.

"I haven't the slightest idea. It wasn't something I needed to know when I was stealing your crown."

"Hmm, well I think the biggest problem will be getting you in, everyone still sees you as Flynn Rider, wanted thief and now escaped prisoner."

"No problem we'll have Max here capture me and take me in."

"They'll throw you in the dungeon and then hang you."

"Okay, bad plan, but that was just first try, give me a minute."

Clip, clop, clip, clop…

"Well"

"I'm thinking!"

"Ah, Eugene, what's wrong with everyone?" asked Rapunzel as they crossed the bridge into the city.

Looking around carefully Eugene sees nothing out of the ordinary, "What do you mean?"

"The people are all sad and what happened to all the flags and everything."

"Oh, the decorations were up only for the Princess'…your birthday, and since you didn't return everyone is a little sad."

"Should I tell them?" looking around, her heart went out to them.

"No, let's get you official recognized and then they'll announce it and everyone will be happy again. Actually, I think you are one of the reasons that it was so easy to steal the crown. Everyone, including the guards are just not at their best. The heart went out of the kingdom since you were lost. From what I've heard the entire kingdom turned out to find the magic golden flower to save the queen. It worked but for some reason with your being taken it hurt the soul of the kingdom."

"Oh no."

"That is why we need to get you to the castle first."

"Ah, Maximus, you got more prisoners. Good boy. You've brought in quite the haul already, can't get enough now, eh?" Called a guard as they approached. Maximus shook his head. "What?"

"Please, sir, Maximus helped rescue me but he's over-extended himself and needs help himself now," spoke up Rapunzel.

The guard turned to the other and said, "Get a stableman, quickly." and the other guard ran off.

"But this is Flynn Rider," said the guard pointing his halberd at Eugene.

"No, no, no." Rapunzel said stepping in front of Eugene. "This is Eugene Fitzherbert."

The guard looked at a nearby poster. "He looks a lot like Flynn Rider. Well, the nose isn't the same."

"Maximus, is this Eugene Fitzherbert?" asked the guard. Max nodded. "Very well then."

The stableman came for Maximus, "Here boy, I'll take good care of you."

"You better, he just helped rescue the Lost Princess." Eugene told the stableman.

Everyone stopped and turned to look at him.

"I'm the Lost Princess." announced Rapunzel.

The guards in their polished breastplates sighed and looked weary. "Very well, I'll get you an escort to the Testing Chamber."

"Th-there's a Testing _Chamber?"_ She asked, glancing at Eugene, her hands fumbling near her shoulder for the hair that was no longer there. She could also feel Pascal's tail wrap around her neck comfortingly.

"Oh, yes. What did you expect, getting to see the King and Queen without being verified first, did you."

"Um, I didn't really know."

The guards shared a glance.

"Do you get many Lost Princesses."

"Oh, yeah. You're the third, no fourth, this month." Rapunzel and Eugene shared a look.

An elderly footman arrived and they ventured forth into the castle.

Unsure of where to start "Hello, my name is Rapunzel. So, what's your name?" asked Rapunzel.

"Um, Edward, m'lady."

"That's a nice name."

"Thank you. Here we are. Please, wait here, m'lady, sir." said the footman, sketching a bow.

"Thank you." replied Rapunzel


	3. Chap 3 The Seneschal

It was a room larger, and more formal then the Tower, it had a table with chairs in front of it by the fireplace and by the windows several chairs and sofas. Not exactly what Rapunzel would call homey, it seemed so fancy in comparison to her Tower. It seemed like a lot of people could be in this room at the same time. For a Testing Chamber it didn't look scary. There was a guard in the room, different from most of the others with crossed sashes across his chest instead of the sun crested breastplate she'd seen most of the time.

When Eugene had cased the castle when he was still Flynn Rider, he had noticed them too, but they weren't involved in guarding the crown and there just weren't vey many of them so had dismissed them. Now he wasn't so sure that had been wise. This guard, didn't look dangerous like the Stabbington Brothers did, but this guard gave off the feeling of great competence. Eugene just knew that it would take more then a frying pan to take down this guard.

They heard running footsteps and then a young woman in palace livery banged into the room. She curtsied, "Good afternoon, m'lady. I'm to be your chambermaid." Eugene looked her over, there was a time, not very long ago that he would have spent some time trying to woo a girl like her if he had found her in a tavern or encountered her on the street, but now he found her just slightly cute.

"That's nice. What does a chambermaid do?" replied Rapunzel in a confused voice.

"I attend you and can fetch things that you want. m'lady."

"Okay. My name is Rapunzel, what's you're name?"

"Angela, m'lady."

"So what happens next."

"Ma'am?"

"I understand that there is a test to see if I am the Lost Princess, can you tell me about it?"

"Oh, I don't know about the test, but the seneschal will be here soon to talk to you."

"The seneschal is the person who runs the castle for the king." Eugene whispered to Rapunzel. She turned toward him.

"Eek, what's that on your neck." Rapunzel jumped as the chambermaid screamed as she backed herself against the wall.

"Oh, this is Pascal. He's a chameleon. He's my friend. Do you want to meet him?" She held out her arm and Pascal jogged down to her hand.

Angela slid sideways toward the door. Shaking her head. Pascal looked disappointedly at Rapunzel.

"I think someone is afraid of chameleons. Don't worry, about her, the test is far more important. You are the Lost Princess, you can pass whatever test they have."

Mortimor Danberry was the seneschal to the kingdom of Corona. He had been in the service of the King for nearly 30 years, and had worked very hard for them. He was a rotund man with a fringe of gray hair around his bald head.

He was walking to the Testing Chamber, because another Lost Princess candidate had appeared at the gates not long ago. He was surprised by this, he had long ago created a princess warning network of observant people around the city to warn him of their coming, but this one seemed to have going to the castle without notice. He had expected one yesterday as there had been several sightings of a girl with blonde hair that had looked like a princess candidate.

Screening the princess candidates was emotionally challenging. Everyone missed the Lost Princess.

He had even lead the search parties for the magic golden flowers just over 18 years ago now, that had been a grand time, he thought. The beloved queen was so sick, and almost the entire city had turned out to search for that flower. It had taken every ship and boat they had to transport them all. And they had found it and saved the queen. The baby was born hale and heathy. It had all been worth it.

But then the Kidnapper took the beloved child. Again he had lead search parties, the entire kingdom had mobilized themselves out of love for the grieving royals. He was sure they had left no stone unturned to find the Lost Princess. He had personally tracked down a every report of an old woman with a blonde baby. There had been one at some falling over tavern with a duck. But it could not possibly have been the kidnapper, she was far too young to have been the perpetrator. He hadn't even bothered to turn back the blanket covering the baby. After a year they had finally given up, but following the queens suggestion they sent up sky lanterns to signal the Lost Princess to come home. It was the knotted end of hope but there was nothing left for them to do.

He shook his head, meeting these false princesses always brought up the old memories.

Suddenly, a chambermaid came pelting towards him. He caught her,"Angela, what is it, child?"

"The girl she has a lizard around her neck and it was changing colors and staring at me." she wept.

"Easy, child, easy. The Testing Chamber isn't your normal job is it?"

"N-no, sir." shaking her head.

"Isn't Keterina usually taking care of the room?"

"Yes, sir, but they needed someone when the princess came in and I was in the kitchen just then, so they sent me." she gulped.

"It's okay. Go find her and have her do her duty."

"Oh, thank you, sir." she got a hold of herself and walked back toward the kitchens.

The seneschal entered the Testing Chamber and paused, the Lock Guard next to the door was expected but the girl and her man were not so much. The man looked vaguely familiar but the girl was a totally different matter. After 18 years of blonde princesses coming to to be tested this was the first time a brunette had ever shown up. He was expecting a princess with long golden hair, that is what his princess warning network had told him about yesterday. He almost laughed except something about the way she looked was also familiar. And she did indeed have a chameleon on her shoulder, which smiled at him.

"Ah, welcome, my lady. Please, let us sit together so we can determine if you truly are the Lost Princess." Following the script. They moved to the table, he held a chair out for Rapunzel and moved to the other side of the table as Eugene sat next to her. They shared a look before turning to the seneschal.

"So, when did you find out you were the Lost Princess?"

"Oh, that was this morning." Rapunzel's hands unconsciously reached for some hair to worry but finding nothing to hold on to just fluttered on he r shoulder, she looked at her hands and forced them to stillness in her lap.

"…and how did you find out?" the seneschal prompted.

"I was looking at the sigil flag that Eugene here gave me when we were here for the lanterns. After Mother, er not my real mother but, Mother Gothel who raised me, had taken all the flowers and braids out of my hair."

"Aw, those were pretty." commented Eugene.

"She told me again how terrible the world was and how it would destroy any light that it found. and then went to make the hazelnut soup she had surprised me for my birthday. Then I lay down on my bed and was looking at the sigil flag again and looking at the painting on the ceiling of my room and then I saw all the suns I had painted into all the scenes I had painted all over my room, then I had a vision of a sun floating over me and two large people who I knew were my parents and that reminded me of the mosaic in the square showing the Lost Princess, King and Queen. The vision was so strong I stumbled into my vanity. I then confronted Mother, er Mother Gothel about it and she all but confirmed it. When I told her I would never let her use my hair again she attacked me and chained me to the stairs. Before she could finish packing, Eugene came to rescue me. I tried to warn him, but she gagged me and threw my hair out the window so he could climb up."

"Wait, she threw your hair out the window?" asked the seneschal.

"Yes, that is how Mother Gothel would get in and out of the tower, there was no other way until she revealed the hidden staircase this morning."

"You should have seen it, it was a good 70 feet long and as golden as the sun on an summers day." chimed in Eugene.

"But now it's short and brown. Why is that?"

"That was my fault. Once I had climbed the tower to try and rescue her, Mother Gothel stabbed me." showing the hole and the blood on his shirt and vest. "Rapunzel was going to fight her for every minute of the rest of her life but she promised she would go peacefully with Mother Gothel if she could heal me first. I couldn't let her do that, Mother Gothel was going to make her a slave. I knew I was dying but I couldn't let Rapunzel keep that promise. My strength was leaving me I had only one chance to do something. So I pretended to want a kiss, grabbed her hair and cut it with a shard of mirror that was on the floor near me. Then things went rather fuzzy." Eugene finished lamely.

"That's because you died." reminded Rapunzel.

"He died!" Even Pascal nodded.

"Yes, He was dying, I started the healing incantation, but with my hair cut there was nothing that I could do about it. It had lost its power. After he died, I finished singing it because I couldn't think of anything else _to_ do. Well, there was one thing, I cried." She reached out and touched Eugene's cheek with a tender look on her face."Then light started swirling out from his wound forming a flower and then it faded and he woke up."

"So you're telling me that your tears have healing powers?"

"No, my hair had healing powers, but after it was cut there seemed there was only one last drop of magic left and it healed him. I tried healing Maximus by crying but it didn't work."

"Maximus? I know that name, isn't that the Palace Guard Captains' horse? How did he get involved with you, I was told that he captured a couple of men last night and involved in the prison break this morning?"

"Well, Yes… he broke me out of the prison this morning to save Rapunzel." Eugene added casually. The seneschal looked ready to throw him back in the dungeon.

"Please, let us explain." Rapunzel said desperately.

"Oh, you have a lot of explaining to do, but let's all start from the beginning. The very beginning. The queen was pregnant and became sick. The kingdom turned out to find a magic golden flower that was rumored to exist, which was found and used to heal the queen. The princess was born healthy with long golden hair. The baby was stolen soon after by an old woman, whom we never found. Then what happened?" Asked the seneschal.

Rapunzel began her story,"You wouldn't have been able to find her because you were looking for the wrong thing. Mother would use my hair to make herself young. If you were looking for an old woman with a baby, won't notice a young woman with a baby."

"You mentioned that before. Your hair had the power to make people young?" asked the seneschal.

"And heal." Rapunzel added.

"She used it to heal my hand after I cut it on a rock trying to get out of the cave when the dam broke." chimed in Eugene holding up his hand.

"… ah hold that thought, make sure to come back to that when we get to that part of the story. So we were looking for the wrong person, where did she hide you?"

"There is a hidden tower, I have no idea how it got there, or why it was built where it was, but it is in a small canyon with a waterfall, about half a day's walk from here."

"Only half a day's walk from here?" it came out in a despairing sounding way.

"Oh, don't feel bad for yourself, it is very well hidden, the only reason I found it was because I was trying to get away from Maximus and I quite literally stumbled upon it." commented Eugene.

The seneschal gave Eugene a look. He kept getting the desire to ask him a lot of questions but determining the claim of this Lost Princess candidate was more important. Turning back to Rapunzel. "And what did you do all this time?"

"I stayed in the tower. Mother told me that the power of my hair needed to be protected, so I could never leave the tower. So I kept busy by doing chores, reading, painting, and doing things with Pascal here to keep each other entertained." Patting Pascal affectionately. "The big thing in my life were the lanterns that I kept seeing every year on my birthday. I knew they weren't stars as they didn't move like the stars do, I mapped them out on the wall of my tower and the floating lights didn't fit anything else up there. And this year I was determined to find out exactly what they were. I worked up my courage and asked Mother, er Mother Gothel, if she would take me to see them, but she said they were only the stars. After she left for the morning, he showed up." glancing at Eugene.

She explained that after capturing him ("with a frying pan" interjected Eugene), and noticing that he didn't have pointy teeth, (the seneschal traded a glance with Eugene who shrugged, and wrote himself a note to follow up on that later) that she would show him off to mother to prove that she could handle herself outside. But that didn't work, so she asked for some new paint, made from shells she knew were from far enough away that she could see the floating lights and get back before mother got back, she hated herself for lying to Mother like that but it was the only way to see the lights. By hiding his satchel she was able to make a deal with Eugene to take her to see the floating lights and bring her safely back. Which he agreed to. We went through the forest and when we got hungry we stopped at the Snuggly Duckling. He was almost taken prisoner by the thugs there and I convinces them not to, they were really nice, and they helped us escape thru a secret passage when the palace guards showed up. But they followed us. And then some ruffians showed up too wanting to get him. I swung to safety, and he got in a swordfight with Maximus using my frying pan, then I pulled him to safety, the seneschal made more notes, then Maximus broke the dam and we got trapped in a cave with water coming in. We used the glow from my hair to find a way out just after the cave filled with water. We made camp and I healed his hand, he went off to find more firewood but, Mother found me and wanted to take me back to the tower, I said no, but then she gave me the satchel, though I have no idea how she found it. She left before you came back and I hid the satchel.

I woke up to Eugene screaming as Maximus was dragging him away. I convinced Maximus to let him be my guide for the day and then they could chase each other all they wanted the next day because it was my birthday. We could see the top of the castle from our campsite, we had gotten very close. Crossing the bridge was so exciting, so many things to see and people. But my hair was so long that people were stepping on it and so Eugene found some girls braiding their hair by the fountain and they did a wonderful job making it only as long as I was tall. It was beautiful and they were very nice. The library was wonderful, I haven't seen so many books in one place ever and so much more to learn. Then there was the chalk drawing, there were all these children making drawings on the stones in another square and I joined in and made a big sun flower with a purple background.

"It was very impressive." added Eugene

"You made that? Everyone thought it was amazing, we even heard about it here at the castle. The court painter went down to copy it so it could be saved." wondered the seneschal.

"And in the square with the portrait of the royal family where the people leave flowers for the Lost Princess, there were musicians and I started dancing and a lot of people joined in. But they kept Eugene and I apart until the end. Then it was time to go to the boats and see the lights.

That was really scary, because even if was everything I imagined it was, it was still going to be over soon and I was going to go back to the tower. But I didn't really want to, I wanted to stay with Eugene. So when he gave us lanterns I gave him the satchel. I was sure he liked me then since he didn't seem to care about it very much. But then he paddled us to shore and left with the satchel." She looked at Eugene.

"Um, it was because I saw the Stabbington brothers on the shore behind you when we were going to kiss. I went to give them the satchel because I didn't care about it any more, but they did. At least I thought so, they didn't care about the satchel anymore either as they knew about your hair."

"Well, I care, what was in the satchel?" interrupted the seneschal, annoyed that something that seemed to be so important wasn't being explained.

Eugene was suddenly busy looking anywhere but at the two of them.

Rapunzel added, "Well, I don't know exactly what it is but it was some kind of crown, I think."

"It was the Crown of the Lost Princess." Eugene blurted out.


	4. Chap 4 Rapunzel Tells her Story

"WHAT!" The seneschal's shout was so loud birds roosting on a neighboring tower took flight. He waved off the guard who rushed forward as he had jumped to his feet.

Rapunzel looked confused. "That was my crown?"

She began to wish she had her hair to hide in as the seneschal paced back and forth like a caged lion.

"Are you kidding me? You've come here claiming to be the Lost Princess and you don't even know about your crown? The Most Valuable Treasure of the kingdom. We've had a squad of guards around it night and day since the day you were taken. It was found yesterday in the hands of Flynn Rider, who was supposed to have been hanged this morning but escaped with the help of a mob of thugs who are now awaiting trial in the dungeon."

"Oh, please don't hurt them, they're nice guys, really." injected Rapunzel.

"Besides, it was Max who got them to do it, so I could save her. You see, I came to in the boat the Stabbington brothers tied me to not far from when we had left Maximus I shouted that Rapunzel was in trouble. I was hoping he heard me and could go save her himself but I think he got the thugs from the Snuggly Duckling because he had no idea where she was."

"You're Flynn Rider!"

"Yes." said Eugene.

"No." shouted Rapunzel. Everyone looked at her. "Well, he was, but he isn't any more. Flynn Rider died this morning because Eugene Fitzherbert gave his life to save me. I had promised Mother that I would go with her if she would let me save him first. That everything would go back to the way it was. She could use my hair to stay young." Rapunzel's voice had gotten hollow and flat, her hands were groping her shoulder feeling for her hair. "I promised I would never try to escape or run away and we would be together forever. I never break a promise. And it would have been forever, because my hair can-could heal anything. I would give up my freedom and any hope of going outside ever again just to know that Eugene was alive, somewhere, even if I could never be with him again. I had found someone who liked me and I didn't, couldn't let him die." Tears where dripping onto her hands that tightly gripped her skirts as Eugene put his arms around her.

The seneschal sat down across from them again, his look more gentle. "I think we skipped over some parts in there. He left you at the boat and went to give the crown to the Stabbington Brothers, who were brought in by Maximus and are currently in the dungeon, so you are safe from them for now. Then what happened?"

Wiping her eyes, Rapunzel pulled herself together, Pascal who had been nuzzling her hand and looking a very distressed purple moved up to her neck and gave her some nuzzles. She gave him a quick smile and then took up the story. "I waited what seemed like forever and then I saw someone coming out of the fog, I thought it was Eugene, but it was the Stabbingtion Brothers walking single file. They said Flynn had left me. I couldn't believe them but they showed me that he was sailing away in a boat, I tried calling him but then they said it was a fair trade I was traded to them: the crown for the girl with the magic hair. And they had sack. I tried to run but my braid got caught on a branch. Then I heard thumping and then Mother called, she had knocked them out and I went home with her because I felt that I had been betrayed by someone who I thought loved me." She glanced at Eugene.

"Don't look at me, it wasn't my idea. I was betrayed by them too. But I have to tell you that they don't hit quite as hard as you do with your frying pan. They tied me to that boat and sent me back to the city. I woke up when I hit the dock and I found that I had the crown stuck in my hand. Then the guards took me, I was trying to get them to listen, but you know how guards are. I kept calling for Rapunzel, I am guessing that Max heard me and tried to find her, but only found the Stabbington brothers since he brought them in. I spent a restless night trying to figure out how to help Rapunzel. Then the Captain of the Guard came to take me to be hanged. I had given up, there wasn't a way out or anyone to listen to me at that point. But then I saw the Stabbington brothers in a cell. I knocked away the guards and grabbed the nearest one and almost dragged him through the bars, I had to know how he had known about Rapunzel's hair. He said that an old woman had told them. The only other person to know about her hair was her mother. I realized that Rapunzel was in far more danger from her own mother then from any of us. Then the guards swarmed me and took me away. Then the next thing I know the guards are disappearing, the Pub Thugs were breaking me out of the dungeon. One of them had a key to the shackles and then we were running away from the reinforcements. We got to the square where we were surrounded but then Hookhand put me on a cart and then I was flying through the air and landed on Maximus on top of the wall. He had gotten them to come break me out. We ran from more guards and jumped off of the wall and down some roofs and out of town to her tower."

"The next part gets really interesting but I want to know what happened to you after you left the beach." Eugene said turning to Rapunzel.


	5. Chap 5 They Finish the Story

"Well, Mother and I spent the night walking home, her green lantern lighting the way. It was just getting light when we reached the Tower. She showed me that there was a stair leading up on the backside of the tower. I was so tired and sad that I didn't really care. We went into my bedroom and Mother spent a lot of time removing the flowers and braids from my hair making it as though it had never happened. Mother said she had tried to warn me about how terrible the outside world was. And I could only agree with her, I had some times when I thought I had found someone who really liked me, but the betrayal was like a knife through my heart. Mother went to make my birthday dinner she had surprised me with before I left, though it was morning. I had found the sigil flag in my pocket and was holding it as I flopped onto my bed. I had saved it from Mother because it did remind me of a moment of happiness. I held it above me as I lay there and then things began to change. I could see suns all over my room. I had somehow incorporated that sun image into everything I had painted in my room. As I stood up in wonder surrounded by all those images, I had a vision or something. There was the sun again in a round thing above me with little animals hanging off of it, and there were two people a man and a woman, they looked just like the people in the mosaic in the square, the king and queen holding a little girl with golden hair and green eyes; my hair and my eyes. Those people were my parents, my parents were the king and queen, I was a princess. I was the Lost Princess. That realization knocked me off of my feet. Mother Gothel wasn't my real mother, I had parents. Parents that were still looking for me, that loved me. It was too much, I was kneeling on the floor, my whole world was upside down, it was hard to breathe. I could hear Mother calling but I couldn't understand her. I went to my curtain and confronted her. She wasn't my mother, she was the terrible one, she wanted my power, she had been using me. She tried to put me in my place like she always did but I was so angry, I caught her hand and told her she could never use my hair again. She spun away and broke my mirror. Then she attacked me and put me in chains. We heard the hoofbeats coming, I tried to call for help but she gagged me. When I heard Eugene call me to let down my hair, Mother threw it down and hid next to the window. I tried to warn you but you wouldn't stop talking long enough to hear me and she stabbed you. I can still hear the sound of her knife going into your body. When you fell you didn't land on any of my hair so I couldn't help you. I tried to get to you but when mother pulled on the chains it was like she was pulling my arms out. "

"But I had to help you. You came back for me, you still loved me, and I couldn't let you die. I offered Mother my hair, my life and my freedom, I would never run or try to escape. I knew she needed my hair, there have been a few times when she has been gone for a few days and she came back very old but my hair would make her young again in an instant. So telling her that we would be together forever, I knew it was going to be a very long time. But for you it would be worth it." Rapunzel looked into Eugene's eyes.

"I couldn't let you do that. I'd have rather died then let you stay with her with no chance of escape." said Eugene.

"Actually, you did die." Rapunzel said shyly.

"Yeah, I did, didn't I. I remember lots of screaming for some reason."

"That was Mother, for some reason cutting my hair caused her to age very fast, I think it was very painful for her, she was stumbling around and Pascal tripped her with a length of my hair. Pascal is very brave, aren't you?" Giving the chameleon a rub on his eye ridges. Even as tears began to stream down her face again. "I tried to grab her, but I was too far away. I just wanted to be away from her, I didn't want her dead. Then Eugene coughed, I started the Healing Incantation with what was left of my hair but once it's cut it loses its power. Nothing happened and you died. My whole life was crash ing down around me, Mother had just died in front of me and so had my Eugene. There was nothing left, I cradled you in my lap and finished the incantation because there was nothing else I knew to do. If having been betrayed felt like being cut with a knife, all this was like having my heart cut out. I have never hurt so much in my life, falling down the stairs had hurt less. And I didn't know what to do, I didn't have my hair anymore, so I couldn't fix it. Now there was no one to turn to, no one left. Then through my tears I saw light, the wound was glowing, streams of light poured out and surrounded us. Finally a flower appeared to grow where the wound was and then it all faded and you started to breathe and you spoke. It was amazing and I felt like I was floating in the sky like a lantern."

The seneschal could just stare as Rapunzel and Eugene shared a look. It was True Love, he hadn't seen that look between anyone for a long time. The King and Queen had it, but they hadn't shared it for 18 years. At that moment, he didn't care if she was the Lost Princess or not, they had something very special, and if she did not pass the Test he would make sure that they would be gotten to safety, far away, maybe King Stephen's kingdom. No matter.

"And then we came here, since Maximus had exhausted himself bringing Eugene to my tower, and he needed proper help, and to come home to my real parents." finished Rapunzel.

Clearing his throat, "I think now, it is time for The Test. I shall return shortly." Rapunzel and Eugene exchanged glances and clasped hands. The seneschal got up and left.


	6. Chap 6 The Test

The seneschal pondered what had happened back there. The interview was only a formality, all the false Lost Princesses had come with elaborate backstories and explanations, but he had never encountered anything like this girl before. The girl seemed completely honest and innocent. She truly believed her story. He knew that the dam had been broken by Maximus from the Captain's report. That the search for the crown had gone to the Snuggly Duckling. He even knew that a girl with long golden hair had been in the city for the celebration, her joy and innocence had attracted a lot of attention. His princess warning system had alerted him and he was expecting her to make her claim but she never did. This girl had taken him completely by surprise.

The Test, the Test would tell if she was the true Lost Princess. Shaking his head is continued on to the royal apartment. The day after the Birthday was set aside for rest and recovery. It was very hard on the King, he didn't speak of it but the seneschal could tell that the "celebration" was very hard on the king. He feared that the king was loosing hope. Every time a claimant was rejected the lines on the king's face grew deeper and the less he spoke. The seneschal did much to ease the burden of the King but this was one that he couldn't help with.

Stopping outside the royal apartments, the seneschal settled himself and schooled his face to be strictly neutral, he had made a serious mistake with the first false princess and he had vowed never to raise false hope in his king again. He nodded to the Lock Guard in his crossed sash and fez-like hat, that always stayed near the Test.

Bowing to the queen, who greeted him. "M'lady, There is another claimant. I am in need of the Test."

The queen looked deeply at him, trying to fine some sign, but he held is neutrality and calmness as close as he could, he would not hurt them again. Nodding she turned away from her seneschal and removed a necklace with a vial containing the kingdom's Most Precious Treasure that she kept ever near her heart. The Crown of the Lost Princess may be called the kingdom's Most Valuable Treasure, but it was really just a decoy. They could not keep the rumors of a very valuable treasure from spreading, but they did what they could to make sure anyone who wanted the treasure think it was something other then it was. Still it was surprising that Flynn Rider had pulled off the heist.

After the princess was taken they had found a lock of hair in the crib. What it had meant was something the Privy Council had debated for some time, they had even included the head women and the midwife just to be sure they had covered all possibilities. They knew that an old woman had stolen the princess, while the princess had had golden hair the lock was brown which was very close to the color of the queen's hair. It was the logical conclusion that the hair was from the princess and that the golden color of her hair was some kind of magical effect from the magic, golden flower they had used to heal the queen and that it was lost when the hair was cut and returned to its actual color, which was very close to the color of the queens hair.

It wasn't the strongest evidence he'd ever seen but it was the only conclusion that fit all the available facts. The test was very simple, cut a sample of the claimant's hair and compare them. Of course, all the girls so far had blonde hair that had stayed blonde when cut. So they could not be the Lost Princess, none had even understood the test.

The seneschal had the suspicion that the queen kept the Lock on her person so she would know if there was a claimant in the palace. She had the most hope of them all. And the king and queen always seemed to be together when he returned it with a shake of his head.

As the queen lay the warm vial in his hand, he gave the Lock a long look. It looked like… No, clenching it in his fist he bowed carefully to his queen and left. The Lock Guard staying with him now.

The queen gazed at the doors for a long time. The queen nodded to her chambermaid who took up position down the hall, while the queen went off to be near the king.

"Easy, old man. Breathe. Follow the protocol." the seneschal whispered to himself. Then he and the Lock Guard entered the Testing Chamber. The claimant and her man spun around. The Lock Guard closed the doors and took position in front of them. The man looked at the guard suspiciously. Going to his desk, he removed a pair of scissors and approached the girl. Fear shown in her eyes. Her hands moved to her shoulder as if trying to grip some hair that wasn't there anymore.

"What are those for?" asked Rapunzel.

"The Test is very simple really, I need some of your hair."

"But Eugene cut my hair already, it doesn't have any power anymore." Eugene moved close to her and held her. Pascal eyed the seneschal suspiciously.

"Be that as it may, we must perform the test if we are to know if you are the true Lost Princess."

Burying her face into Eugene's shoulder she said, "Okay, do it."

With a puzzled expression on his face the seneschal approached and gently lifted a lock of hair and Rapunzel shivered as she heard the snip. She took a shuttering breath and then she slowly turned.

She saw the seneschal standing there, a lock of her hair in his hand next to a vial with something brown in it. The hand was shaking. His face was very pale. The scissors slipped from his other hand and landed with a clatter to the floor.

Eugene reached out and put an arm on the seneschal's shoulder, "Are you alright, man?"

The seneschal crashed to his knees, looking up with tears streaming down his face he said, "Welcome home, your Highness, we've missed you, so much." and hugged them both around the waist.

The Lock Guards were standing there with their jaws hanging open. The seneschal turned on his knees.

"Don't just stand there. Quickly man, tell them that she'll be at the plaza balcony. Move."

The guard took off at at run.

"Your Highness, please, come with me. You're going to meet your parents now."


	7. Chap 7 Maximus Saves the Day

Maximus Saves the Day

Note: A short interstitial about how Maximus was able to get the Pub Thugs to break Flynn out of prison.

Maximus saw the guards take Flynn Rider away. Flynn kept calling Rapunzel's name. She must be in worse trouble then he was, and he was being taken to prison. That's a bad sign.

Maximus ran thru town and over the bridge to where he thought Flynn was looking. Maximus snuffled around and found two large men out cold in the beach. he could smell Flynn and Rapunzel and Pascal. There was someone else too someone new someone that smelled bad, very bad. This was a big problem.

He followed the scent trail but it got lost crossing a stream.

He went back and found the two men again. They were coming around and so he grabbed one of their swords and took them to the watch at the bridge. Getting scratches and an apple were nice but he still had to find the girl.

She was a good girl, the nicest girl he's ever met. She was wonderful and special. She needed to be saved. The only one who knew where she could be would be Flynn and he was in prison. Maximus was a good horse he wasn't the mount of the Captain of the Palace guard for nothing. The other horses took his orders too.

To save Rapunzel he would have to get Flynn out of prison and that was wrong. But he had promised Rapunzel to help her and rescuing her from the bad smelling person would be good. He was a smart horse, but things were usually good or wrong. Doing a wrong thing just wasn't in his nature, but this seemed to a time were doing a wrong was the good thing to do to do more good things. Much like when he broke out of his stall when there was a fire and got the other horses out too.

But how to get Flynn out of the prison, the guards wouldn't listen to a horse. His rider was a good guy but didn't know about Rapunzel and so wouldn't really care, besides he'd been chasing Flynn for so long he'd not want to let him go.

The only people he knew that might listen would be those thugs at the Snuggly Duckling, they weren't his first choice but they would be the only men able to do the work, they knew about Rapunzel and he should be able to get thru to them about her.

Maximus galloped off to the tavern. He barges in and quickly finds Hookhand. "What are you doing here again? We ain't doing nothing."

Max looked around. Yes, there was a poster of Flynn on the door, he pointed at it.

"What? Flynn isn't here."

Max made an exasperated sound.

"Oh, you know that already." Max nodded.

Hookhands eyes narrowed, "So there is something else going on then." Max nodded again.

"Something to do with Flynn?" Max shook his head

"Not Flynn. Who then?" Max pointed to the empty spot next to the wanted poster.

"The door?" Head shake.

"Someone next to him"

"Oh, oh I know, the Stabbington brothers", said Vlad holding up another wanted poster. Max shook his head.

The thugs started shouting out random names. This wasn't working. Max starts banging his head against the door. "Hey, I don't appreciate being call dumb, especially by a horse. Don't get all frustrated at me, you need to come up with better clues. Are you supposed to be smart or what?"

Max started to pace he saw the drunk midget on a low stool. He went over to him and draped his tail over him. "Hey, that tickles" there were a few rude laughs about it but Max ignored them and pointed at Flynn, and back to his tail and waggled it over the midget. He should see them thinking about it as he kept pointed to one and then the other. He could have sworn that one of them had smoke coming out of his ears, but he may have been just too close to the fire.

"The girl, the girl that was with Flynn yesterday." called BigNose.

Finally, thought Maximus, neighing loudly. He would have reared and pawed the air but it was too small in the pub for a display like that. They all cheered at there. When things quieted down Hookhand asked.

"The girl, she's in trouble, isn't she?" Max nodded again.

"From Flynn?" Head shake.

"Okay. She's in trouble, but not from Flynn. Do you know where she is?" Again a head shake.

"The girl is in trouble but you don't know where? That makes it hard to help her."

Max points to Flynn again.

"Flynn, does he know where she is?" Nod.

"Do you know where Flynn is?" Nod again.

"Where is he?" Maximus gives him an "Are you kidding me?" look.

"Yeah, right, that would a problem. Okay, lead the way." They opened the door and followed Maximus out.

The short, wide thug that still had blood in his mustache was the last one out commented in his low, slow voice. "I hope we don't have to break him out of jail."


	8. Chap 8 Flynn Confesses

After what felt like several sunlit days the newly rejoined royal family and Eugene stood up. They stayed very close to one another, Rapunzel and her mother holding hands and the king had his arm around the waist of the queen and Eugene had an arm around the shoulders of Rapunzel.

The King held Rapunzel at arms length next to the Queen, "She looks so much like you, the Test must have been pointless."

That hug was one of the most precious memories that Eugene now had. For several beautiful minutes he actually felt like he was part of a family, with real parents and everything. Something he couldn't ever remember feeling. His mother had died giving birth to him and his father had died after the ax slipped while chopping wood. Rapunzel was far more important to him then anything, even life itself he thought to himself, feeling the dried blood on his side.

This had been killing him on the walk to the palace. When she had still been Goldie, setting up some modest place and becoming a horse trader or something honest was the biggest dream he could handle for giving her a good life. But she's a princess, and not just any princess but The Lost Princess.

Flynn Rider exulted, she was the ultimate Get Out Of Jail Free Card, bringing her home would mean total pardon and a clean slate.

Eugene Fitzherbert despaired, he couldn't use her again. In the past two days she'd saved his life three times. She had offered up her life to save him, she had promised. The pain of that promise had overshadowed the knife in his belly. At least he had been able to prevent her from being taken. And she had still saved him again.

Flynn Rider might be a lovable rogue and best thief in the kingdom, but that still meant he moved around a lot. That was no life for a married couple, even Flynn wanted to marry Goldie.

Eugene Fitzherbert knew that he'd never be in any way equal to The Lost Princess. He wanted to be the best husband he could be for the princess and that meant being the best he knew and that meant owning up to everything he had done and face the consequences.

"They'll kill us," said Flynn Rider to Eugene Fitzherbert.

"I know." said Eugene Fitzherbert to Flynn Rider.

"Do you actually think that would be worth it?"

"It's for Rapunzel, there is no other answer but yes."

"It's not just your life."

"I've been dead before."

Eugene took a deep breath and said, "Sir, ma'am. I know you want to spend all kinds of time with your daughter, but I need to tell you some things right now, because they are important. I am Flynn Rider. "

"Eugene." Rapunzel said admonishingly. The king and queen looked confused. Eugene looked down at her and the last remnants of Flynn Rider retreated under that loving gaze. Turning back to the king and queen, he started again. Clearing his throat.

"I was Flynn Rider, Flynn Rider died in a tower hidden deep in the forest trying to save Rapunzel" He gestured to the blood crusted hole in his vest and shirt, "who saved him instead. I am Eugene Fitzherbert."


	9. Chap 9 Justice or Mercy

The royal couple shared a look and the King said, "That sounds like quite the story, and we'd better find a place to sit and hear it."

Just then the seneschal came out and suggested that they come in and have some dinner.

"Please, just don't freak out" Rapunzel asked her parents. Eugene gave a small smile at that request, as they sat around a small table heaped with several small easy to eat items. They looked somewhat tempting, they had only have some apples, cheese and some stale bread from the tower, The Snuggly Duckling had been empty, probably everyone was in prison.

Rapunzel dug in while Eugene started his story.

"It all started 2 days ago when I stole the Crown of the Lost Princess," Eugene paused with a wince as the King gave him a stony look and the queen a gasp. "I betrayed my partners in crime and stole the crown from them while leaving them to face the palace guard alone. But I was still being chased. As I was trying to get away from Maximus the palace horse, a really good horse, by the way, he deserves a promotion, he's in the stable now recovering because he ran so hard to help me rescue Rapunzel, I stumbled upon a hidden tower, I couldn't find an entrance but thought it would make a great hideout. So I climbed up to a window and closed the shutters and paused to admire my treasure. But it turned out that it wasn't a good choice of hiding place, Rapunzel was already in there and she knocked me out with her frying pan." He rubbed the back of his head ruefully while the King gave a laugh.

"She hid the crown, tied me up with her own hair and proposed a deal. That I take her to see the floating lanterns the next day and return her safely home before she would return the crown. I agreed since I had little choice at that point. Not to say I didn't try to scare her back to her tower, I even took her to the Snuggly Duckling."

The King frowned.

"Where, ah, she charmed the whole place in about 5 minutes, and rescued me from the thugs who wanted the reward." he finished ruefully.

The queen smiled proudly at her daughter.

"But then we had to escape the guards so we were shown a secret passage that came out by the dam. Which broke as we made our escape."

"You did that?" asked the King.

"The dam was not my fault. Maximus broke the dam and we ended up in a collapsed mine entrance with the water coming in. We almost drowned but she made her hair glow and we found a way out."

"Made her hair glow?" the queen asked, Pascal and Rapunzel nodded.

"I know I'm going fast here, but you need the bones of the story so you know how we got here. It's going to take days to get all the details straight, I learned new things when we were talking the seneschal. By the end of the first day she had saved my life twice. I had been so annoyed at her hiding my rightfully stolen loot and forcing me to babysit her to the kingdom to see the lanterns. But she had been so generous and good that I couldn't help wanting to be good to her in return. Then we got to the city here. Excuse me for saying this but even for the celebration the kingdom is a little on the down side, I know because you all miss the Lost Princess, but everywhere she went happiness broke out. Doing a chalk painting in the square. Even when we stopped for dinner I was standing in line for some bread and cheese and the next thing I know a dance had broken out around her."

He looked down at her with great affection. The king and queen were looking amazed.

"Then I took her out in a boat so she would have the best view possible of the lanterns for the best day of her life. She actually gave me back the crown and I realized that I didn't care about it any more, only her. Then I saw the Stabbington brothers on the shore, my former partners in crime. They still cared about the crown, or so I thought. I was going to give it to them so I could stay with her and turn it all around. But they knew about Rapunzel's magic hair they knocked me out, tied me to a boat and sent me back to the docks where I was captured. Rapunzel was saved by her "mother" who had actually betrayed her " He gave the queen a significant look.

"Then Maximus and the Thugs from the Snuggly Duckling broke me out of the prison."

"Oh, those were such darling men. I don't think they really want to be ruffians." interjected Rapunzel.

"Skipping a lot of detail." added Eugene as the King looked like he was going to interrupt.

"Maximus and I raced to the tower. I called for Rapunzel, and her hair came down. I climbed up so happy to have found her, but I found her chained and gagged, and then her mother stabbed me. I fell to the floor on the shards of a broken mirror. Rapunzel was fighting her mother harder then ever. But she offered to go with her peacefully if she was allowed to heal me first. I couldn't let her do that, her "mother" had betrayed everyone and we were all going to die, I feared that Rapunzel was next. So when she was getting ready to heal me I pretended to want to kiss her, but instead I cut off her magic hair with a shard of the mirror, so she couldn't keep that promise. I would have rather died then let her be in the hands of that woman." He finished fiercely.

"Eugene, you did die." admonished Rapunzel.

"Oh, yeah, I did, didn't I." he said with a hand on his torn and bloody vest. "And she saved me yet again. And she was the one who figured out that she was the Lost Princess too. So we came back here, so she could be with her real parents."

The queen had tears running down her face and the king came around and gave them all another hug.

After they broke the hug, Eugene looked directly at the King. "Sir, I know you have no reason to trust me. I was a thief, I even stole the most valuable treasure your kingdom had to offer. But now there is nothing more important to me then Rapunzel. I gave the crown away, because all I wanted was to be with her and I thought that giving it away would protect her, I didn't know she was the Lost Princess. I broke out of your prison to try and save her so I could be with her again. Two days ago my greatest dream used to be to have a castle in some far off land surrounded by money and to be alone. Now I would trade the world just to be with your daughter. I know I must pay for my crimes and I will accept any punishment you feel appropriate, even if you must hang me."

"Oh, please don't hang him." Rapunzel pleaded.

The King stood up and began to pace "Hanging you would be the just thing to do, in this kingdom I rule by law, so justice might be served. I do not rule by whim, history has shown us that rule by whim destroys a country from within. But to hang you would cause pain to my daughter and I would not cause her pain for all the world. You have also returned our beloved daughter. You could have asked for any boon, up to half the kingdom and I would have given it to you gladly, but you have asked for justice and my daughter for mercy. You have placed me in a dilemma and I must consider this. For now you will be guarded, and allowed to be with my daughter, until I can decide what to do with you."

Rapunzel clasped Eugene's hand protectively.


	10. Chap 10 HookHand's Story

"But I need to hear more of the story if I am to judge wisely. You said the thugs from the Snuggly Duckling helped you escape and Maximus too. I was told we captured a large number of men this morning because of your jailbreak. I presume these are the thugs you are talking about."

Eugene nodded.

Rapunzel sat forward, "Please. They aren't bad people. HookHand just wants to be a concert pianist. BigNose wants to find true love. They're all like that, they just look scary, but they're really sweet inside. Please don't hurt them."

The King gave his daughter a stricken look, "Daughter, you don't understand what you are asking. To release one prisoner would be bad but to release so many would undermine our whole system of justice that we've worked so hard to develop."

Rapunzel had her hands at her mouth and Eugene looked grim. The King stood.

"And I would do it, I would destroy the kingdom, just to have you back. Your birth meant everything to us." He walked to his Queen and took her had and looked at her with loving eyes. "We had tried so hard, so many midwives, to produce an heir. Finally, you were pregnant and the baby was growing well, then you became sick. There was a story, a rumor really, of a magic, golden flower out there somewhere that could heal anything. We have good people in our kingdom and when they heard, they turned out. The entire kingdom mobilized, the very old watching the very young, and everyone else left the cities and villages to search, not because I ordered it but because they wanted to, out of love for the Queen. They are worthy of a good King, a better King then I, because I would betray them all to have my daughter back." He bowed his head. Rapunzel had her face in her hands.

"Sire, If I may." said the seneschal into the silence. "The people love you too, and they know you are a father with a taken child. They will forgive you. I know many of them would gladly go into slavery to let you have your daughter back."

The King nodded sadly. "But first of all we need to hear as much of the story possible. So I can judge rightly." The king turned to a guard, "Bring the prisoner HookHand." The guard saluted and left.

"I'm so sorry," said Rapunzel. "I dreamt that this would have been a happy occasion. I should never have left the tower." Eugene put his arm around her.

"No, no, it is a happy occasion, it is just not simple. I doubt things were all that complicated if you lived in tower with only one other person." said the King gently.

"I, I was going to trade my freedom, just to be able to save Eugene. I promised to go with Mother, that everything would go back the way it was, that we would be together forever. I think it might have been forever too. Mother was very old, there were hints, she would refer to things that happened long ago in my books that seemed to be something she experienced. And how she died." Rapunzel shivered as she remembered Mother screaming.

"My hair could heal anything, even hold back aging, and apparently even death." she looked shyly at Eugene. "I promised I would never run or even try to escape just so I could heal Eugene so he wouldn't die. He was my new dream and I couldn't let him die."

Eugene was looking deeply into her eyes, "And you were my new dream. I could not let you keep that promise. You were choosing a fate worse then death, what she would have done to you, I could not allow. She would have destroyed you. I'm sorry that I made that choice for you. You needed to be free of her so your spirit could soar. Frankly, I didn't think that cutting your hair would actually kill her, much less like that."

"What happened?" asked the Queen intently.

Rapunzel answered. "She got old. Very old, very quickly. I've seen her come home from a long journey and her hair would be white and her eyes sunken and her hands crippled. But after I would sing for her she would be young again. She always aged quickly, after even a couple of days her hair would be streaked with white and she would be wrinkled. But this time." Rapunzel shuddered, "this time it was much worse. The skin on her hands looked like thin paper, her hair was all bluey-white, her face covered in wrinkles, her voice got all rough. And then, and then her hands started to crumble, like chalk. She was screaming, and I couldn't take away the pain anymore. Then she fell out the window and I couldn't catch her. I'm so sorry." Rapunzel began to weep. The Queen came around and hugged her daughter. Her face inscrutable.

"The prisoner, your Majesty." A guard announced. HookHand was lead into the room. His hook had been taken and instead of handcuffs there where chains around his ankles. He knew he was in trouble, but now it just got a lot worse. Being pulled out of your cell in the middle of the night is never a good sign, being thrown into a room where the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife, is worse. He saw Flynn Rider sitting next to a crying girl he didn't recognize ,who the Queen was hugging. He did not like being around crying girls, they tended to make life complicated.

The King turned, with a look of revulsion on his face. HookHand was used to that look but for once it didn't seem to directed at him. "So, you are supposed to be a leader with the thugs of the Snuggly Duckling?"

"Er, yes, sire." HookHand considered his options quickly, lying to a magistrate is one thing, lying to the king in what was obviously an emotional charged conversion was quite another. HookHand knew that he would hang at some point. The story was good enough that it might as well be for what actually happened.

"Well, Flynn Rider here says that you broke him out of my prison this morning."

"Uh, yes, sire."

"Now why would you do that?"

"A horse asked us to." 'Did that just sound as insane as I thought it did?' The girl and Flynn exchanged a look, 'Yup, it sure did, I am so dead,' thought HookHand.

"A horse?" The King said neutrally.

"Yes, one of your horses, Maximus. Sire."

"And why would one of my horses want to break a wanted criminal out of my prison. Please, start from the beginning. I think I would really like to hear this story."

HookHand got a rather sick feeling in his stomach. Wondering just how good this story really was. Saying the first part out loud sounded so insane that even if he didn't hang we would never be free again.

They had broken Flynn out to rescue the blonde girl and now here he was sitting with the King with some brunette. He was going to have do something about Flynn. He liked the blonde and having her double-crossed by Flynn was not sitting well with him.

Still the story was good enough to be worth the truth and it might get Flynn in trouble too.

"Well, this morning we were eating breakfast and then Maximus comes barging in. He looks at me and I tell him that we ain't going nothing wrong. Then he goes and points at one of Flynn Rider's wanted posters. I tell him that he's not here either and he chased them out of there just day before yesterday."

"Them, them who?" interrupted the King. Flynn looked like he was going to say something but the Queen shushed him.

"Flynn and the blonde girl. I really liked the girl, she had a good dream, not like Flynn here." Why was the girl smiling at him?

"Hm, I don't think you started far enough back? Try again, but start two days ago with Flynn and the blonde girl."

"Okay, well, Flynn comes barging into the place with a girl with really, really long blonde hair and a frying pan. Flynn is acting like he owns the place, which we really didn't like and I don't think he realized just how big a price you put on his head. I wanted to take him in to buy a new hook." He gestured with his stump. "but then we were going to divvy him up between us. I was about to put him down when the girl got my attention. She started talking about how she needed him to live her dream of seeing the lanterns. You know the lanterns you send up for the princess." Then King nodded. HookHand ducked his head. "Well, that reminded me of my own unfulfilled dream, to be a concert pianist. Before you know it everyone is confessing their secret dreams to her in front of everyone."

"Like what? " asked the King.

"Um, BigNose wants a wife, Gunther wants to be an interior designer, Olf wants to be a mime, Attila likes to bake cupcakes and things like that. Good stuff, not like Flynn who just wants to be alone with a big pile of money," he shot Flynn a look. The King turned and gave Flynn an appraising look too. Flynn had the grace to look abashed.

"Well, then the guards and Maximus showed up, but since the girl was so nice, we hid them and I showed them the hidden exit. I told her to live her dream and she gave me a kiss. Which was really nice." He said with a smile at the memory. 'Now why is the girl blushing?' thought HookHand. "But the horse figured out the hidden passage and they all took off down the exit."

"That's the last we saw of them until this morning, when Maximus arrived. He wanted to rescue the blonde girl, but didn't know where she was, but he did know where Flynn was and he knew where to find the blonde girl. The horse didn't, couldn't say where he was so he lead us there. Assaulting the prison was not our idea, but we all really liked the girl and did it for her. Even though we never liked Flynn. We launched him off of a cart onto Maximus so he could rescue the girl." He shot another look at Flynn. "Then your men captured us."

The King gave him a long look. "Thank you, you story has given me much to consider. You are to be returned to your cell now." The King turned away to face the Flynn and the women. The guards stepped up next to him.

"Sire, please, one boon, what happened to the blonde girl we were trying to rescue?"

Flynn and the girl looked like they were going to say something but the King waved them off and turned, "Flynn and Maximus rescued her and she is safe. Your concern speaks well of you. That will be taken into consideration for your sentencing." The King waved to the guards. HookHand looked relieved as he clanked away.


	11. Chap 11 That About Sums It Up

The King waited for the door to close. The mantle of authority he had taken on for dealing with the prisoner dropped away as he dragged one of the white brocade seats knee to knee with his new daughter. Eugene was impressed with how quickly and easily the King switched demeanors.

King Leonard took her small hand in his, it felt warm as he covered it with his other hand.

He looked at wonder at his daughter. "How did you do that? He's a hardened criminal, suspected to have killed at least one person over an insult. We bring him here in chains, he knows is facing the death penalty, yet all his concern on a girl he just met two days ago. He gave up his freedom to rescue a man he didn't even like, just to give you a chance, not an assurance but only a chance, to be rescued. He didn't know who you were then and didn't even recognize you now. He didn't even know your name and he mounted an assault on the prison to rescue the one person who knew where you were, on the word of a horse."

The Queen was gazing on Rapunzel with a look of awe, Eugene's mouth was hanging open and Pascal was giving everyone a smug look from Rapuzel's shoulder, meaning "See, I told you she was a Princess."

Rapunzel was stunned. She looked to her real mother and then to Eugene "I-I don't know, I just told them what I was trying to do, to live the dream that was in my heart for all these years. In return they spilled out their dreams to me. Please, there must be some way to help him and the others."

"I hope we can too, if these are the criminals in our kingdom…" The King shook his head with a rueful smile. He looked over to his faithful seneschal, "Mortimer, you do understand the problem we are facing here?"

Th seneschal moved from beside the door, into the light of the candelabras which reflected off of his balding head. "Yes, sire. Your daughter has returned in the company of a known criminal, who was rescued by a band of criminals and you need to find a way to release them to make your daughter happy, without destroying the justice system of your kingdom."

"Very good, we also need to spend as much time together as possible, so I want you to rouse the wise who are in still in the city and get them solving this for us. I fear I am not able to make the best decisions right now. I feel that there is a good solution here somewhere but I just can't remember what it is for some reason." He smiled at his daughter. She smiled shyly back, she really didn't think that coming home would make such a big mess of things. She had thought that meeting her parents would be loving, joyful and all happily-ever-after, not precipitating a crisis for a justice system.

"Yes, sire, I understand sire. You can count on us." He turned and the guards opened the doors smoothly as he left.

The King leaned toward his daughter, "We have heard this man's story and the story of some criminals, and even a horse's story. Now we finally get to your story. I know you must be exhausted, you looked so very tired but we've been waiting so long. We'll just listen and it can be short, we'll tease out details tomorrow."


	12. Chap 12 Rapunzel Begins

Rapunzel was looking distressed. Her hand fluttered near her shoulder, which Eugene took in his own. She has been with her parents for hours now but didn't know something very important about them.

"May I know you names, please?"

"Oh, I am so sorry," spoke up the Queen, "with all the excitement we forgot to tell you. My name is Rebecca."

"And mine is Leonard." finished the King. They waited expectantly.

"Please, isn't anyone going to ask me my name?" asked Rapunzel in a small voice.

"But," Queen Rebecca started, but the hand of King Leonard on her knee stopped her.

"It's okay, we should have realized that the kidnapper would not have kept the name we gave you." He looked very deeply and gently into his daughters great green tear-filled eyes and asked, "What is your name?"

Dabbing her eyes, "I'm sorry, my name is Rapunzel."

The King and Queen kneeled down and gave Rapunzel a big hug. "You have no reason to be sorry, we are the ones that forgot the niceties here." said Rebecca

After a few deep breathes Rapunzel calmed down again. "Um, I'm not sure where to begin, I don't think you want to hear about 18 years worth of chores or painting murals."

"The lanterns." Eugene prompted.

"Oh, yes, of course, the lanterns, they're what started this. You see, every year on my birthday, I would look out my window and I would see these floating lights, they weren't stars and they only came on my birthday. I usually had to sneak down to my window to see them but for some reason I could feel that they were something special, that they were meant for me."

Leonard and Rebecca squeezed each other's hands.

"This year I finally screwed up enough courage to ask Mother if we could leave the tower and see the lights. But she said they are just the stars and convinced me that I wasn't strong enough to go outside." Rapunzel looked down.

"Mother left to get some parsnips to surprise me with hazelnut soup for my birthday. So I was moping around the tower when I heard clanging sounds Outside. I looked out the window and there was a person climbing my tower. I was so scared. I grabbed the frying pan and hid until he got inside and then hit him with it, twice." Rapunzel shot an apologetic look at Eugene, who rubbed the back of his head with a rueful smile. "I didn't know what to do with a person, so I stuffed him in my closet. I also found the crown in his satchel. Then I though to surprise Mother with him to show her that I was strong enough to go Outside after all. But before I could, Mother said I was to never leave the tower." Rapunzel dropped her face into her hands. "So-so I lied to her. I told her I wanted paints instead, that needed ingredients from far away, far enough I could see the lights and get back without her knowing." She tried so hard to be a good person, lying was wrong but she just had had to see the lights.

After a deep breathe she continued the story. "I hatched a plan to see the lights, I would use him as a guide. He had found the tower and lived Outside and so would help me steer around the dangers, to make sure he would bring me back I hid his satchel that had the crown in it. So a I tied him to my chair with my hair and made a deal with him. He'd get the crown back after he took me to see the lanterns and brought me safely back home. He agreed."

"Leaving the tower made me feel all strange, sometimes I was excited and sometimes sad, but I kept going, I had to see the lanterns. We stopped for lunch at the Snuggly Duckling and they tried to take Eugene, but then I found out the dreams of all the ruffians and thugs there. When the guards came, the thugs let us out thru a secret passage, but then the guards found us and were chasing us. But our way was blocked by more ruffians. I used my hair to swing to safety, while Eugene lost his sword fight with Maximus."

The King and Queen shared a glance and then looked at Eugene.

"Believe me, that is a great story all by itself, but later." mentioned Eugene with an offhand wave of his hand.

"I grabbed him with my hair and swung him to safety over the Stabbington brothers. But they were still chasing us. Maximus knocked over a support beam to get to me. Eugene still had the end of my hair. He called to me to jump."

She looked at Eugene. "I had to decide then if I trusted you, really trusted you. You had my hair, my very life in your hands. You could have let me drop and get hurt and you could have run away and left me. Mother had used my hair against me many times, that very morning too, actually. I had never let even Mother have that kind of trust. But I looked deep inside my heart and knew I could trust you. Then there was no time, I had to take a running leap to get away. I never trusted anyone like that before," she gave Eugene a crushing hug. Eugene's face looked stricken, even as Flynn Rider he had never even thought to drop her. He had not known just what that leaf of faith had meant to her.

"Then we were running from the guards and the Stabbington brothers, but then the dam broke and we were all just running for our lives. I could hear their screams as the water took them. I was running as fast as I could, Eugene right behind me, Pascal bouncing on my shoulder. We passed a tall rock outcropping, I knew enough from my books to know that the limestone would never be strong enough to withstand the water but I could see a cave. I could hear the rock snap, we ran faster, I was carrying most of my hair and Eugene the rest, but the shadow was overtaking us, I could hear it coming toward us. It was so loud but we were only steps away from the cave I thought we would be crushed just as we got inside. Then the water came, louder then the worst thunderstorm, filling the cave. Eugene tried to find a way out but there wasn't one. I was hitting the walls with my pan but it didn't do anything either. And then, then we gave up."

Rebecca put her arm around her daughter and Leonard held her hand tightly.

"We just sat there in the dark as the water swirled around us. I was so sorry that I had dragged Eugene into all this. I knew the outside world was dangerous but I hadn't suspected that even the ground and water would be trying to kill us. I thought that having a guide would keep bad things from happening, but now here we were dying."

"Then Flynn Rider told me that his real name was Eugene Fitzherbert. I was so touched that he would share that secret of his with me, so I decided to share my own secret with him. That my hair glows when I sing. Then I realized that there was still hope, I started singing the incantation just as the water closed in over our heads, but I finished it in my head hoping it was enough. And it worked, we had light and my hair was being sucked into some rocks showing us the way out. We dug our way to freedom. We ended up on the bank of the river. Eugene was freaking out over my glowing hair, but it did more then that. He had cut his hand in the cave, so after we built a fire to get dry, I wrapped my hair around his hand and healed his hand. He then told me about little orphan Eugene Fitzherbert, and then went to get some firewood."


	13. Chap 13 Rapunzel Finishes

The King and Queen were enraptured by the story. It was so much to take in and it had only covered a few hours of her life. She had shown amazing strength and bravery.

"Then Mother found me. She said she had followed the sound of complete and utter betrayal. She wanted to take me back but I had done so much and meet such wonderful people. I didn't want to go back yet. I still wanted to see the lanterns most of all. But Mother said he was just doing this for the crown, which she somehow had and gave to me, to test him, give it to him and see how fast he would leave. I didn't do that then, I was too scared." Rapunzel gave Eugene a shy look.

"The next morning Maximus found us and tried to take Eugene away. But I convinced him to let him be my guide just for my birthday and then they could chase each other all they wanted. We had camped really close to the city, I could see the top of the palace over the trees and it was so exciting, people and food and art and dancing. The dancing was so fun, even though it seemed like everyone was trying to keep Eugene and I apart. Then it was time for the lanterns."

"Eugene rented a boat and I was so scared. I had been watching the lanterns from my window for so long, it was my greatest dream to see them and now it was time. And then they lit up the sky, it was so amazing, like being surrounded by thousands of fireflies. It was more wonderful then I had ever dreamt. And then Eugene pulled out some lanterns for us so we could signal the Lost Princess too. And I gave him the crown, because I wasn't scared anymore, I liked him and I was sure he liked me. We almost kissed but then he rowed to shore and took the crown and left me. I was so worried that he wasn't coming back, then the Stabbington brothers came back instead and they knew about my hair and they tried to kidnap me. But Mother saved me. I went with her because I thought Eugene had betrayed me. I know better now, but I was crushed, I believed Mother that the world was terrible place. So we went back to the tower last night."

The Kings face had gotten quite grim at this point, but Rapunzel continued.

"I had accomplished my dream, I had seen the floating lights but the cost, the cost had been so terribly high. I had saved one little thing from Mother, a small sigil banner" that she pulled out and showed to everyone, "that Eugene gave me, I took it out and looked at it after she left me along in my room. Suddenly I was seeing those suns all over my room, in all the paintings I had made. I then had a memory or vision, I saw the sun image floating above me in the air with animals hanging off of it. Then I saw you two but younger, and the mosaic in the Square of the Lost Princess and then me with the crown on my head and I knew, I knew with every fiber of my being that I was the Lost Princess. That knowing was so powerful that it knocked me off my feet, I could hardly breathe, everything was changing nothing was the same anymore. I confronted Mother, she had taken me and used me. She told me she had arraigned for Eugene to be hanged, so I had no where else to go. I told her that she could never use my hair again and she attacked me from behind. I should not have turned my back on her, but I still thought that Mother wouldn't hurt me. She chained me and was going to take me away somewhere else. I was fighting her, I would never go with her. Then Eugene came and Mother stabbed him. It was like a knife to my own belly, but I knew I could save him if only Mother would allow it. She was trying to drag me away, the chains were pulling the arms from my shoulders but I had to save Eugene. I got the gag off and bargained with her, my hair and my freedom for his life. Everything would go back to the way it was, I would never even try to escape if she would just let me heal him. He was my new dream, the dream to sustain me after the lanterns, he had to live."

Rapunzel laid a hand on his cheek. Eugene took her hand and kissed it. The King and Queen looked at each other, they knew love when they saw it. She turned back to her parents.

"Mother took the deal. But before I could heal him, he, he c-cut my hair. Mother died and then so did he, even Pascal was hurt trying to save me and there was nothing I could do about any of it. I finished singing the healing incantation over his body because it had always helped before, but it just made the pain worse since nothing happened, I was crying over his body and then something happened, lights appeared and he was healed and alive again. I was so happy. Then we had to help Maximus as he had over exerted himself getting Eugene to my tower, but my tears didn't work on him and we all walked slowly here. Announced ourselves at the gate and passed the test, and met you."

The King and Queen went over and hugged their daughter again as the seneschal came back in.

"Oh my daughter, my beloved daughter, you are so strong and so good, it is an honor to have you as our daughter," Said the King as the tears flowed down the Queens face.

As they sat down again, Pascal gave a huge yawn. Which caused Rapunzel and Eugene to both yawn too.

"Okay, we've kept them both up far too late, especially if they didn't sleep at all last night. Here now, we need to get them to bed." The Queen looked the the seneschal.

"The Princess' chambers are ready for her and the Green bedroom for Mr. Fitzherbert." He replied.

"Oh, well done." said the Queen, as everyone rose to follow the seneschal. The Green bedroom was next to the royal apartment on the other side from the Princess' chambers.

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who have been reading and reviewing this story. This has been great. Most of the catching up is done. Now things are going to get interesting with original characters and alternate points of view.


	14. Chap 14 The Lock Captain's Plan

Author's Note: People have been asking if Rapunzel has a "real" name. When I wrote that chapter, she didn't, I was just hanging a lampshade () on it.

Rapunzel has a name now, but you are going to have to wait until the coronation scene, where she is officially made Crown Princess of Corona.

The Lock Captain's Plan

The Lock Captain pulled out the worst case scenario from the secret files. He had finished cleaning up after the Princess's Birthday celebration of the day before. They were so hard, it reminded them of their worst failure, they had failed to protect the Princess the day she was kidnapped.

It didn't really matter to Captain Taygon that they had been just been created the day she was born, nor did it matter that he had been in this office compiling a list of names of possible candidates at the time. He should have been there. The failure still stung after all these years and he and the rest of the Lock Guard were determined not to let that happen again if they ever have another chance.

He settled his two criss-crossed sashes and put his fez on his desk. Now it was time to start updating the contingency files. They had studied hard and had made so many plans but the changes were often small. This one was not so simple. This was Plan ZZZ: the unthinkable plan, it contained the very worst possibilities that the 28 of them and their wives could imagine that they could do something about. This did not even include the list of possible scenarios they could do nothing about.

Sighing he flipped open the file. Having an evil princess return would be bad, one bent on world conquest would be worse, one that was Maleficent's secret apprentice was terrible. But somehow they keep finding a new way to make it worse. He flipped open his notebook and began to search through it for the things they had come up with in the last year that made it even worse.

The door crashed open as James the guard from the Testing Chamber slammed into the room. "Captain Taygon, She's back, sir" The Lock Guard had run to his captain's office after telling the King and Queen that their daughter had returned.

"What? Who's back?"

"The Lost Princess, she has returned. She's meeting with her parents now on the plaza balcony."

Emotions beyond hope and joy welled up in his soul, but he quickly put them in check, his primary duty was to make sure the Lost Princes would never be Lost again. "Who is protecting her right now."

"Only Jason and Katerina, sir. I told the King and Queen that she is back and that they are to meet her at the plaza balcony." The Captain knew that Jason was on Lock Duty at the moment and that he would be divided in wanting to protect the princess and the Lock that the queen usually held, but the seneschal would have used the Test. Andrea was a the chambermaid and she would be primarily on the princess, but as a chambermaid she wouldn't be seen as a threat by any attackers, that was the idea, but right now overtness would be the better choice.

"We need to improve that, now. Follow me." They strode down the hall to the small training room. There were six men there juggling their short swords, passing them between themselves. It was a very challenging exercise, but provided excellent training in hand-eye coordination. He allowed them a few moments to capture their swords and come to attention.

"Men our time has come, the Lost Princess has returned."

It took a long moment for the words to sink in. "Sir, orders, sir."

"She is to be protected at all costs. Mark take position on the inside of the plaza balcony. The rest of you form a perimeter outside, be overt. James will brief me on what he has learned and then I will send him for reinforcements. She will not be Lost to us again. For the Princess and Corona."

"For the Princess and Corona." The men cheered. Quickly and silently they moved out of the training room like a pack of panthers.

"James with me."

They moved back to the Captain's office. "Tell me what you know about the princess." James had been standing watch in the Test Chamber because that was a place that the Princess would be taken when she arrived. It also afforded the best place to learn what kind of person the Lost Princess had become, it was convenient that the seneschal liked to hear the stories the candidates told him. This way they got a jump of what plan they would need to begin implementing.

"Yes, sir. She learned she was the Lost Princess this morning. She had been kept in a hidden tower in the forest about half a days walk from the city. She has a pet chameleon. She had magic hair that made the kidnapper young and had healing powered. She was brought back by Flynn Rider who now called Eugene Fitzherbert and Maximus the palace horse. The criminals at the Snuggly Duckling helped them escape from the the palace guards. She was almost kidnapped by the Stabbington brothers, who are currently in custody. She tried to give her life and freedom to save Flynn Rider, but he prevented it by cutting off her magic hair, which killed him and the kidnapper. She used magic tears to save Flynn Rider but that has apparently drained her magic. It appears that they are very much in love with each other. She has been awake for the past two days and has traveled much in the last three. They only have the clothes on their backs. She looks very much like the Queen, slightly smaller though. She has short brown hair and an elaborately embroidered lavender dress. She likes hazelnut soup."

"Right, thank you for that summary. Now go to the barracks and alert the troops, We'll need third, fifth and twelfth and fourteenth squads and tell the twelfth to bring their sewing and tell them of her physical attributes. Have the first, second and eleventh begin a rest cycle, it may be a long night."

The third and fifth were the Lock Guard, and they would be enough to provide coverage for the Princess, the Lock and the criminal. The twelfth and fourteenth were the Lock Guard Irregulars, actually they were the wives of the Lock Guard, they moved around the palace as chambermaids but their husbands had trained them to be effective protectors of the Princess. Assassins and kidnappers would tend to try kill the Lock Guard first which would give the women time get the Princess to safety. But for the most part they see to her needs including cooking her food, to prevent poisoning.

James moved silently out of the room and away. The barracks were actually a small neighborhood of houses near the castle the Lock Guard had bought. It had taken a long time on their meager budget, but it had made a huge difference.

Lock Captain Taygon looked down at the file he had been working on. When your duty is to prepare for any eventuality it quickly lead to places you'd rather not think about. While their duty was to protect the Princess, there were cases that a greater duty to humanity overrode even that. This was not the case today. He gratefully closed it and returned it to it's proper place in the secret files. Never to be updated again.

Moving past the plans in case the Princess was found dead he came to those where she returned and was good, she had simple magical powers like animal friendship but most princesses and even queens seemed to have that so that wasn't a surprise.

The kidnapper is dead, praise be for that, it made his job tremendously easier. He had barely enough people to provide round the clock coverage of the Lock and the Princess, with a criminal rescuer, even with the women. That had been a godsend idea. The entire Lock guard had married and trained their wives and gotten them jobs as chambermaids and the like within the castle. It nearly doubled their official numbers. Though several had to stay home to rear the children, they did it in shifts to maintain strong family bonds. He had pulled off the arraignment with the head-woman who was sympathetic to his cause.

He pulled the Q files for the princess. Since the kidnapper was dead he left those files alone.

He also pulled the T files. A criminal rescuer and then removed variation 3: with mutual love, the Lock Captain shook his head, his wife was going to be so smug about that. He did not mind results of the bet, but payment of that would have to wait until things settled down and they could get away for a few days. He smiled. Mutual love, was probably the best result, better then the Princess just loving him, or the criminal just loving her, those tended to end messily.

They had spent all these years coming up with different scenarios. No matter how carefully they had thought through these plans the Universe always had a way to throw a variation into the mix. They had learned that long ago. They had investigated many disappearances of others and learned as much as they could but each time they planned and predicted something new always came up. So they tried to make the plans as flexible as possible.

A Jubilee would solve so many issues not just around the princess and her criminal love but all around the kingdom, it would anger a few but better a few then many. The Stabbington brothers were a complication, he would take care of personally.

But first he was going to call the military counsel together. They had a job to do.

The seneschal was looking out of the window as the royal family embraced for the first time when the Captain of the Princess's Lock Guard quietly came up next to him.

"Sir, the Princess has returned." It wasn't a question.

"Yes, yes, she has." the seneschal said with a smile.

"I have already deployed a squad of Lock Guard to protect her."

"Good, good." the seneschal noted distractedly. He looked around, there was the Lock guard a short distance from him because he had the Lock in his pocket still. He noticed the guards a discreet distance from the royal family. "Well done, Captain. Let me order an evening meal for the royal family and have the princess' chambers prepared."

"Begging your pardon but I have already arranged that. The family dining room is being stocked with dainties, we are pretty sure that they will be more interesting in talking then eating but the Princess is looking rather tired already, we doubt she will stay awake all night, which is just as well, the King most likely will but I have need to speak with him, but it can wait until after they have tucked the Princess into bed. Also the Green bedroom is being prepared for Flynn Rider, a separate squad is going to be on him I suggest showing him his room first then the princess.

The military council is also convening, they would like assurances that this is true and what they should do. I suggest you seal the harbor, double the guard at the bridge, and the entrances to the castle and ring the castle with 4 extra roaming squads, on rotation. The Navy should also deploy around the island."

"What? Why? Are you expecting an invasion?" asked the seneschal with surprise.

Captain Taygon gave a tight smile. "No, this is a show of force for the Princesses' benefit. She needs to know that she will be safe here. She needs to know that the troops care about her and will protect her. It will be several days before she will have a chance to review the troops, but the troops need to do something too."

"Of-of course. That's a really good idea." The seneschal sounded surprised.

"Yes, sir. I know. We have about half an hour before sundown, they won't notice much of anything until then, then we'll move them to the family dining room. First, let us talk to the military council and get them moving. Sir?" The Lock Captain gestured him to go first down the wide corridor.

The seneschal was wondering what had come over the Lock Captain. He had always liked the Lock Captain. He was thoroughly professional, listened carefully and gave sound advice in council. He was a good man, very serious which made him a good foil to the Captain of the Palace Guard, who was rather fiery and tended toward impulsiveness.

Actually the Lock Guard is a misnomer, they had been organized to be the bodyguard of the princess, They were really called the Princess Guard but after she had been kidnapped and the search called off they had been given the responsibility to guard the Lock of Hair they had found in the cradle of the princess. It had become the most precious treasure of the kingdom. The Lock Captain had suggested keeping the Crown of the Lost Princess on display in the throne room and had even suggested that the palace guard keep the guard so they could display their love for the princess in that duty. Which left him more men for finding the Princess and preparing for her return. Giving them them job of guarding the Lock had helped, but they had all descended into a determined professionalism They were all very serious, they obeyed they orders very thoroughly and often gave useful suggestions to do it better.


	15. Chap 15 The Test Explained

Rapunzel Goes Home 15 Mortimer Explains the Test

The Military Council met as they typically did in the Map Room. Military leaders all loved maps, it gave them the idea that things were organized if you knew where everything was.

Already sitting in their ornate chairs, decorated in the sun and fish symbols of this naval power, were the Captain of the Palace Guard, the Admiral of the Navy and the Commander of the Merchant Marine, and the General of the Army. They looked up expectantly, the Lock Captain had never called an emergency meeting before and they were very curious as to why.

The seneschal stood next to the empty King's seat and announced, "The Lost Princess has returned."

It took a couple of seconds and then they all stood up and cheered waving their hats in the air.

Waiting a few beat the Lock Captain interrupted. "We have waited for 18 years for her return and it is our determination that she is to be protected. the King is going to be distracted with the return of his daughter for about a week, we are going to makes sure that the kingdom is safe and secure, so he can enjoy this time as much as possible."

"I'd like to make a few suggestions. Guard Captain, deploy 3 squads to roaming patrols around the castle, double the guard at the bridge have the rest of your men get a good nights sleep they'll be needed for security after the announcement tomorrow. It will be pandemonium. Admiral your navy is needed to circle the island. Commandant, your marines will secure the harbor. No one enters or leaves without being inspected. We must ensure that the Princess is never Lost again."

A look of determination grew on all the faces of the men and they nodded and quickly moved off to their assignments.

Turning to the seneschal he said, "I'll need a word with the King before he goes to bed, he'll need to know about what is happening. We also have some recommendations for tomorrow and the next few days."

The seneschal was very surprised by the Lock Captain. He had never put himself forward like this before. He had essentially taken command of the kingdom with a few words. Not that he was wrong, it was his express duty to protect the princess, but this level command was something he had never before shown. Admittedly, it was obvious that the King was going to be distracted for the next little while and the seneschal was already thinking of how he would clear the Kings schedule for then next couple of days, but the Lock Captain was sure that it would take a week, which the seneschal conceded was probably more likely.

They found the royal family talking quietly in the family dining room, chatting intently. They were talking about the lanterns and what they went through at the beach. They were sitting at a very small table that they could easily sit next to each other and hold hands like they all were but the seneschal realized he had never seen it before. Turning to the Lock Captain who he saw had a small pleased smile on his face. Had he arraigned even the table? then Captain Taygon frowned slightly. Leaning toward the seneschal he whispered.

"Sir, the princess is looking rather tired, it might be best to have everyone go to bed, return the Lock to the queen that should provide enough of a distraction for the princess to yawn."

The seneschal rather bemusedly, moved to the queen and moving to one knee to be less of a distraction, "Your Majesty, here is the Lock."

"Oh, thank you." The seneschal could actually feel the attention that was focused on the Lock move off of him and back to the Queen as she looped the necklace over her head. He gave an involuntary shiver.

"Excuse me," said Eugene to the seneschal, "But I didn't understand that whole test thing. One moment you are cutting her hair and then you were crashing to your knees crying."

The King gave the seneschal a shocked look, and the Queen gave him a sweet smile and hug. "Oh, you dear man." The seneschal felt his face turn bright red.

"Yes, well. The Test was very simple, when the Princess was taken we found a lock of brown hair in the crib. Since the kidnapper was an old woman and it was obvious that the lock wasn't gray, it somehow must have come from the princess, though why it have become brown was a mystery."

"When my hair is cut it turns brown and loses it power. The magic goes away." Chimed in the princess.

"We thought it might be something like that, but we found that it also was close to the color of the queens hair. We used this to test the false princesses. When they would come they all have golden blonde hair. If it stayed blonde when cut we knew they were a false princess."

"Then why all the questions before then?" asked Eugene.

"Oh that. All the false princesses had come with these elaborate stories about where they had come from and how they had found out they were the Lost Princess. I didn't want them to feel bad after all that work and never tell the story. The story wouldn't take all that long and the disappointment could be quite intense. I've had to comfort a lot of disappointed false princesses and defend myself from some angry ones, though they also ended up crying. I thought it was a small price to pay to make it easier on them." Turning to look at Rapunzel "You were different you didn't have a prepared story, it was spontaneous and disorderly, and also your hair was brown. I had to cut a lock of your hair to see if it would match though it is obvious that it does. I'm sorry if I scared you."

Rapunzel was running her hand through her hair, looking uncertain about things. "I-I understand. I spent 18 years being told that cutting my hair was very bad and wrong and how evil men with pointy teeth would come to cut it and that I was to stay in the tower to protect it and its power. It will take me some time to get used to the fact that it is no longer the case."

"You're a good man." said the King to the seneschal approvingly.

Rapunzel gave a yawn.

"Oh, dear, you must be so tired, your eyes are looking like holes burned into your skull." The queen cut in.

"I am, Mother and I walked home all last night and then we walked back today. I never knew that Outside was so big." said Rapunzel tiredly.

The queen frowned slightly but recovered quickly.

The royal family and Eugene got up and moved off to the royal apartments. The seneschal took them first to the Green Bedroom. Eugene made some remarks about how it looked like he was going to sleep in the forest again, but the blankets looked warm, but he did notice the two Lock Guards that took up position outside his door.

As they moved to the Princess' quarters The royal family was holding hands. The princess may be young and tired but she knew she was surrounded by people who loved her.

As they got to the princess' quarters the Queen said, "You men will have to stay here as we get her ready for bed." A young chambermaid with her apron strings crossed across her chest slipped in as the queen shut the door.

The king looked at the door for some time before turning.

"Sire, could I have a moment." spoke up the Lock Captain.

"Nothing to it but to wait, so you might as well. What is on your mind?"

"The princess mainly, you and the kingdom as well. The military council was happy to know the princess is back, I've had them secure the kingdom."

The king looked surprised, "Are you expecting an attack?"

"No, sire. First, we'll need the troops to be sober for tomorrows announcement to the kingdom. Second, it helps morale by having them do something. If the look on your faces during dinner was any indication the queen and yourself will be in a blissed out haze for at least a week."

"Ah, yeah that's probably true," remembering dinner. The King frowned slightly "What announcement tomorrow?"

"The return of the Lost Princess and her introduction to the populous. That she is in love with Flynn Rider makes things more complex. I have some suggestions that will make things better for the princess and the kingdom."

He handed the king a folder labeled QT(3) Opening it the king saw that it was titled Plan QT sub plan 3 Princess returned by wanted criminal and they are in love with each other. The seneschal was sure that the captain had not been carrying that a moment ago.

"You anticipated this?" asked the king in wonder.

"Sire, after the taking of the Princess you charged us to keep the Lock safe and to prepare for every eventuality of the return of the princess. We failed the Princess once, we do not intent to fail her or you again." he replied with quiet fierceness.

The King put a hand on his Captain's shoulder. "I never blamed you. I didn't give you time to get ready. I only commissioned you that day. You hadn't even had time to chose any men, before she was taken. I know how long you searched, even after I told you to stop. You're a good man, and you've done well under terrible circumstances."

"Be that as it may, sire. We have a job to do. We have written down some suggestions that we recommend to help you through this period of distraction. You are a father first right now and it is important that you spend significant time with your beloved daughter. We are here to makes sure you get that time and keep the kingdom running."

"Are you married, Captain?" looking at the captain with deepened respect.

"Yes, sire. With 3 living children so far."

"You spend time with them."

"Yes, sire."

"Good man."

"Thank you sire. You can read the recommendations after you tuck in your daughter, but please tell the princess that she will be safe here and that there are 6 guards outside her quarters including outside her balcony. She is safe here."

"Of course," the king said with appreciation. Turning to look at his daughters door. "I only see two guards."

"Those are the ones that are supposed to be seen."

The king gave him a look, but just then the door opened and the queen invited the king in as the chambermaid came out and stood across from the door.

Before he went in he asked the seneschal to have the Captain of the Palace Guard and the Head Woman come meet him after they'd finished tucking in Rapunzel.

The king moved as quietly as he could to his daughters bed, she looked so beautiful and peaceful. Her chameleon on the pillow next to her head. Kneeling next tot he bed with his wife, he looked down at his finally returned daughter. "Welcome home, my beloved daughter." She stirred slightly.

The queen then said "I love you so very much."

"I love you more." murmured Rapunzel, with a gasp her eyes flew open and she looked around wildly.

"What is it?" the king and queen asked alarmed.

"I thought Mother was here."

The King and Queen shared a look. The King told his daughter, "We are here. You are safe here, there are six guards all around you. The navy and the army are being deployed to protect you too. We are just next door. You are safe here. Do you want us to stay with you?"

"No, no. I'm okay. I'm safe here" She snuggled under the covers and fell immediately asleep.

Her mother and father quietly left the room. The queens mouth was a hard line as they moved to their apartment.

"You know when she says mother she isn't talking about me." she told her husband flatly.

"Yes, I know, but she is relating to you far easier then to me. It is like she has no idea how to relate to a father, but from what she has told us so far it shouldn't be a surprise. We must be kind and loving and understanding, she will call you mother someday, but it may take some time."

"I know, but it still hurts for some reason."

"I would be astounded if it didn't, you're a mother whose baby was stolen and raised by some other women, who she calls mother. I'm actually surprised you aren't more angry."

"Oh, I do have anger lurking about, but it keeps getting overwhelmed by the sheer joy I have for her being back."

"The Lock Captain said he expects us to be in a, what did he call it, a blissed out haze for at least a week."

"Heh, he's a sensible man he's so serious but he's never steered us wrong."

"Yes, we should get some sleep tomorrow is going to be a very big day. We'll be introducing her to the people." He looked at the plan in his hand.

"What's that?" asked the queen.

"This is the Lock Captain's plan for if the princess is returned by a criminal and the love each other."

"They have a plan for that!"

"Apparently so."

"So what is the plan?"

"I don't know I haven't read it yet, you should read it. I have a few things to do before I can get to it. Please, go to bed dear, I'll be back in a little while, there are some loose ends that need tying up."

The Queen considered her husband for a moment, "loose ends" tended to mean things she didn't like hearing about, nodded, took the file and went into their apartments as the King went with the seneschal, Lock Captain, Guard Captain, and Head Woman.

"First, let's hear your plan, Captain Taygon, then we'll visit the stable…" she heard the King begin as she closed the door.

Author's Note: Yes, I know this doesn't exactly mesh with the previous chapters, but my Council of the Wise turned out to be rather stupid, but this worked better. Call it a Heisenberg, different characters see different things as important.

I noticed that the guard that told the King and Queen that Rapunzel was back was dressed differently from the other guards, so I created Capt. Taygon to do a few things that needed to be done, that frankly the Guard Captain doesn't seem able to do, he's just too hotheaded. This fanficing is fun, and the story is growing like a weed. More to come.


	16. Chap 16 The King Checks on Maximus

The King Checks on Maximus

The King walked into the Stable of the Palace Guard. The smell of hay, horse and muck swept over him. In the summertime it was enough to make a shark retch, but the King liked it, it smelled like an adventure ready to begin. Most of his had started in a stable and that always lent a certain excitement to coming to the stables.

Turning to the Captain of the Palace Guard he spoke, "Get your men and horses ready, Maximus is back but he's exhausted, you'll need to use another horse. Then meet us at the prison."

"Yes, sire. No problem, sire"

The Captain saluted and went down the stalls to the right.

Looking around, King Leonard realized that he didn't know which of the many stalls was Maximus'. Just then a groom came out of one the nearby stalls. He looked about to say something harsh when he realized it was his King. Swallowing what he was going to say, he stammered out, "H-how may I help you, sire?"

"I have need to see Maximus. He was involved with some rather important matters and I need to make sure that they really happened."

"Well, sire, he's the smartest horse in the kingdom and he'll be able to tell you what you want to know," leading the King and his entourage to the left.

"I hope so."

Maximus was in a stall near the outside door for quick exits. They walk past many stall all with horses, hay catching on their clothes.

"There might be a problem, sire."

"Oh, and what would that be?"

"He might not be able to wake up."

"Be that as it may, I do have to try. It's important." said the King. He looks into Maximus' stall and sees the great white horse with his head down looking asleep, covered with a heavy grey blanket emblazoned with the Royal sigil. "So, how is he?"

"I was told that he had exhausted himself doing a lot of running earlier today. The people who brought him home took as good a care of him as they could, which was good enough, but he was very tired. He's been asleep since before I got here. But with some rest maybe a couple of weeks in a good pasture, he'll be right as rain."

"Good. Whatever it takes. He has done the kingdom a great service."

Maximus raises his head.

"Oh, and what is that sire?"

The KIng turned to Max, seeing he was listening."You brought my daughter back."

Max nodded.

"Really, the Lost Princess has returned?" asked the groom.

"That she has."

"Congratulations." clapping his King on the back. "Oh, sorry sire."

The king smiled, then looking at Max the smile faded.

"But you didn't know where she was, did you?" Max shook his head.

"Flynn Rider knew where the girl was?" Max nodded.

"You needed Flynn Rider?" Max nodded again.

"But Flynn Rider was in the prison." slowly Max nodded.

"Getting Flynn Rider out of the prison was wrong." Max lowered his head and nodded.

"You got the thugs to break him out anyway" His head goes still lower, Max nodded again.

"You didn't know she was the Lost Princess. She was just a girl. A girl in trouble. You did all that anyway?"

Max lifted his head, it had been the good thing to do, he knew that. He was a good horse, even if people didn't always understand him. There was a person in trouble and he knew the one person who could help her. It hadn't mattered that she was the Lost Princess, he hadn't known. She was a person who was in trouble and he could help her.

Flynn Rider had asked him to show him how fast he could run, Max had never run so fast or so long before and he had held nothing back to try and save the girl.

Maximus the Palace Horse, mount of the Captain of the Palace Guard, looked into the eyes of the King and nodded.

The King smiled at Maximus. "You did the right thing, no matter the cost to you. You are a very good horse. Thank you for bringing my daughter home." He held out an apple.

Maximus ate the apple and was happy. He did do the right thing. He was a good horse.

"Sleep now, Maximus. You've done well." The King gave Max a few scratches on the head.

"Now I just have to find a way to promote a horse." The King said to the groom.

Maximus the palace horse slept the sleep of the victorious hero.


	17. Chap 17 The King visits the Prison

The King visits the Prison

King Leonard entered the prison. He didn't have to come here very often but this was something he wanted, no, needed to take care of himself.

He was so excited to have his daughter home that he wasn't sure that he could sleep anyway. He'd get a few things done now while she slept, so they could have more time together in the morning. It was going to be busy and he ached to spend as much time with her as possible.

Prisons were designed to be hard, brooding places. People could and would do terrible things to each other and while he tried to be fair, just and merciful. Some people needed punishment to get the point. A very few couldn't seem to ever get the point at all. Still they tried to keep it clean and afford them some dignity.

He had two things to do tonight, one he looked forward too, the other not so much.

The King and his entourage stopped in front of HookHand's cell. He was laying on a thin pallet. He was not asleep.

"I didn't expect to see you down here, sire." said HookHand.

"Well, it does make you easy to find." HookHand's eyes narrowed, did the king just make a joke. Something very strange is going on here.

"I am sorry about rousting you out in the middle of the night for an interrogation." HookHand looked around, what is going on here, did the king just apologize?

"I'd also like to thank you for your honesty up there. That meant a lot because something very important was going on. Your involvement was peripheral to what happened and I needed the truth just then.

"And what was this important thing?"

"The return of my daughter, the Lost Princess."

HookHand's eyebrows nearly lifted off the top of his head as he sat up. "What?"

"The blonde girl you met at the Snuggly Duckling and confessed your deepest dreams too. The girl you broke Flynn Rider out of this prison for, on the word of a horse." The King smiled at that and so did HookHand. "Was my daughter."

Hope broke over HookHand like a wave. "Really, she's the Lost Princess?"

"She's not lost anymore. I want to thank you for being honest with us up there. Having a girl in the company of Flynn Rider claiming to be the Lost Princess didn't exactly inspire trust in either of them."

HookHand gave a short laugh at that.

"Thank you for helping bring her home."

"Uh, you're welcome, sire. Can we go home now?"

The King cocked his head at him. "Of course you can, but it is rather late to start out though, and wouldn't you rather stay for the celebration, you and the others are going to be Honored Guests."

HookHand had no idea how to acknowledge an invitation like that. "Um."

"There'll be a piano." King Leonard offered.

"We'll be there." announced HookHand.

Rapunzel's father smiled, "Good, tomorrow morning I'll be making the big announcement and officially releasing you and the others. I hope you don't mind waiting, you're invited to stay at the palace tomorrow night and for as long as the celebration lasts. Here is some extra bedding to make up for the wait."

The King gestured and a servant came up with folded blankets and a pillow. There was more for the others.

"Oh, and you'll need this." King Leonard held out something to HookHand.

His hook.

After making his goodbyes with HookHand, the King and his remaining entourage, including the Lock Captain and Captain of the Guard, moved deeper into the prison.

The plan for tomorrow was a good one but there was one snag that needed to be dealt with before then. He needed to make sure that his daughter was going to be safe and there were those who needed to be dealt with.

He stopped in front of the Stabbington Brothers. After a breathe he commanded, "Wake them."

Two guards grabbed buckets that were convenient and threw the contents on them. With twin oaths the two brothers awoke. The King waited as they slowly came to realize who was standing in the torchlight in front of them. Their eyes widened as they did and backed up against the far wall.

The Stabbington brothers knew they were in trouble. They were known thieves. They had stolen the Crown of the Lost Princess and had been caught. They could hang for that, unless they could convince the judge that they were just dumb muscle and the Flynn Rider was the mastermind. They had used that defense a few times and it had worked well enough to keep them from swinging from the end of a rope.

They were just hoping that no one had noticed the kidnapping attempt on the blonde girl. Flynn Rider was dead, they saw the guards drag him away after he demanded to know what they knew about the girl. They had even heard what sounded like a trapdoor slamming, a scream then a crowd cheering. The old lady had wanted the girl too. She had double crossed them and taken the girl for herself. Probably was a long way away now getting the money. They should be safe from that particular charge, this was not a good kingdom to get caught kidnapping in.

Having the King himself come to the prison in the middle of the night, however, was not a good sign.

"So, you are two of the people who stole my daughter's crown."

They shared a glance.

"And eventually captured by a horse, all by himself."

They looked down embarrassed.

"Well, the crown is back in our possession."

The Stabbington brothers relaxed slightly, maybe this wasn't going to be so bad.

"There is just the little problem of the attempted kidnapping you boys tried to pull off."

The King wasn't a vicious man except on this one subject. He savored the look on their faces.

"It is unfortunate that there are two testimonies against you. It surely is doubly unfortunate that the girl your tried to kidnap was the Lost Princess and that you were accomplices to the Kidnapper of the Lost Princess."

Oh, did the looks on their faces begin to feed that dark corner of the King's soul that he had set aside for dealing with the Kidnapper.

"I could have you killed immediately." The guards raised their Mark IV double recurve crossbows, the most powerful man-portable crossbows in the world. The Stabbington brothers could easily see that they had been loaded with broad-head quarrels, the ones used to take down knights in shining armor, the blood groove gleaming red in the firelight. The skin on their chests began to creep wanting to be somewhere else other then where those were pointed, at this close a range they'd be pinned to the rock wall and left standing.

"You probably don't know this, few people do, but I have spent considerable time considering what I would do to the Kidnapper, should she ever fall into our hands. Though I doubt you'd be surprised about that. What you might find surprising is how quickly you run out of ways to torture someone? I requested information on torture from every country the kingdom has come in contact with. Being a sea power with lots of trade, there are a lot of countries we come in contact with. When they found out why I was asking they were very accommodating. People are very interested in helping the father of a kidnapped child help deal justice to the kidnapper. As thieves you probably don't understand how - creative - people can get at inflicting pain. Now I'll admit I was disgusted by many of them, one even made me throw up the first time I read it, I put it aside as the Kidnapper was a woman and not a man."

Lance and Dirk were looking like they were going to throw up themselves now.

"Now, admittedly, you didn't know that she was the Lost Princess at the time, neither did she actually. So I have no real cause to take the 18 years of pain her kidnapping has inflicted upon my wife and I, out on you."

The Stabbington brothers knew they were in deep trouble, but maybe there was a little bit of hope. They looked up at the King.

"My daughter was locked away for 18 years as a slave to the Kidnapper. To honor her escape we are going to release all the prisoners tomorrow. Even you."

They tried a tentative smile.

"However, I can not abide kidnappers, especially anyone associated with the Kidnapper."

Their smiles faded.

"You should be executed. Though I am not sure we would get that far. Once your charges are read out I am pretty sure the crowd would turn quite ugly and tear you to shreds with their bare hands and teeth. You would be killed before you could be properly executed. I would not mar my daughters homecoming celebration with something so ugly."

They were getting that sick feeling again.

"I could have them kill you now, but that would not be in the proper spirit of my daughter's return. She had a chance at freedom and took it. You are going to get the same chance. You are going to leave this kingdom and never return. To make sure of that I have something for you."

He pulled out a wanted poster and let it fall to the ground in front of their cell.

Instead of wanted dead or alive, it merely stated Wanted; Dead with a flattering drawing of themselves. Then they saw the reward. Their jaws dropped open.

The king continued in a jolly tone, that dark corner drinking in their pain. "Oh yes, you do get the honor of the largest reward ever offered by this kingdom. You can brag about that all you want, though I don't think you'd like the type of friends that kind of talk would attract."

Far off bells chimed the hour.

"Oh dear, time is certainly flying, so I'd better explain. I've even arraigned for food and water." The king continued in a light tone. A soldier puts a few rations of food and water in front of the cell. "These will be circulated starting at sundown, I do want you to have a fair chance to get out of the kingdom before then."

They looked at each other.

"Oh, I know, you must be thinking that it is too far to make the border of the kingdom in that time. Well, I'll have you know that I have it on the very best authority that if you take the Rosemary Road and run the whole way you have a very good chance of being outside the kingdoms boundaries before the sun stops touching you. And to make sure that you don't get sidetracked by anything, there will be a company of the cavalry to make sure that you keep up the right pace." The Stabbington brothers look at the Captain of the Palace Guard whose smile is a little on the feral side, the torchlight making his golden breastplate look the color of blood. The King often found him to be a bit of a hothead, but he was perfect for this particular job.

"Oh, don't worry they have strict orders not to kill you until the sun goes down or if you leave the kingdom." The King opened the door and kept on the jolly tone, "Go on boys, times a wasting. Make Phidippides proud."

The Stabbington brothers pick up the rations and start jogging down the corridor with most of the guards.

"Boys, you might want to pick up the pace, I said a run."

They look back and start moving faster.

The Captain of the Lock Guard looked to his King. "That was very well done, sire. They will not be a threat." He was truly impressed. He had intended to come down and deal with them himself, but this worked out even better then he had hoped. Having his daughter back has put the fire back in the belly of his King, this was a good thing.

The King let out a breath, "No, I doubt they will."

They and the remaining guards head back to the palace.

They pause for a moment outside where they see two small figures crossing the bridge followed by many mounted men.

Something occurred to Captain Taygon. "Sire, you told them to make Phidippides proud, wasn't he the runner who died after delivering the message that the Greek Army had won at Marathon?"

"Why yes, I believe he did."


	18. Chap 18 An Amazing Day

An Amazing Day

The King and Queen were finally lying in bed together and the King was thinking about what an amazing day it had been.

This morning had been the worst morning ever. He had given up hope yesterday of his daughter ever coming home. Just getting out of bed had been a monumental effort. He had gone through the day as a zombie, his little girl was never, ever coming home, because even if she came home she was a woman now.

Then another false princess was being Tested, his lovely queen didn't say so but when she started reading wherever he was, he knew. It used to fill him with hope, but all that was left was pain, giving up hope hadn't dulled the pain. He could hardly ever talk when a false princess was in the palace. He had just wanted to weep from the pain of it all.

Then their life had exploded, it was actually their daughter, she had returned. It was even better then falling in love, it was like being filled with warm light, floating on air. He smiled again, how many years had it been since he smiled, he rubbed the arm of his beautiful wife who cuddled on his chest.

"I was so worried." The queen said.

"About what?"

"That the kidnapper would have turned our daughter into a someone bad or evil."

"Yes, I know that would have been worse then finding her dead or even not finding her at all."

"But somehow she is still a good person."

"Yes, yes she is." the king said in a proud voice.

There was a long pause. The Queen considered her day. She kept the hope of her daughters return alive. She knew, deep in her soul that her daughter was still alive. Even after the search had been called off there was hope and so she had proposed the sky lanterns to keep the beacon of hope alive in everyone. She had dedicated her life to helping all the children of the kingdom, setting up schools and orphanages, in the hope that one day one of them might be able to find her lost daughter.

After the kidnapping the laws about kidnapping were strengthened. Kidnapping was a terrible crime, just from the sheer despair of not knowing. If a person was killed there was a body to bury, but not so with a kidnapping. No parent should have to go through that. She made sure to sit in on all those trials, not that there had been many of them. The Queen was uncomfortable about how she felt when the end finally came for the kidnapper, she feared she enjoyed it too much. She didn't want to be that kind of person, it was too terrible. So when she learned that Gothel had died, and it was a horrible, horrible death, she felt guilty but relieved.

"I'm not sure how I feel about Mother Gothel right now." said the queen in a quivering voice. "I hate her for taking our daughter."

"Yes."

"But our daughter actually offered her life and freedom for a thief who she had just met. That is an amazing goodness. I don't understand how that is possible."

"I think there is a lot to learn about our daughter and that might take a while. The important thing is that she is home, she is safe and she is good. For now that is enough." He hugged his wife close and drew up the covers which had slipped slightly, he didn't want his wonderful wife to get cold.

Another pause as the Queen was laying on her husband's chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart.

"He died for her." whispered the Queen with a shiver.

"I know. I would never have believed it. He didn't know who she was. He didn't know that it would kill Gothel. He just wanted to keep her free." the King said in wonder.

"What are we going to do?"

"I don't know yet. I will need to talk to him."

"They are in love."

"Yes, you've seen how they look at each other."

"Yes. I-I'm sorry I haven't looked at you that way for so long. I do love you." She looked up at him. He could see her massive eyes reflecting the pale moonlight.

"I'm sorry, too. I love you, so very much. It's been - hard with her being taken." They hug.

"Can we trust him?"

"I don't know. He'll have to be watched. I hope he can be, I think he wants to be, I really do. Dying for our daughter is a very good start. Confessing to his crimes and asking for judgement is too."

The queen plays with his chest hair. She could smell the stable and the prison on him, they both had very unique smells. "Loose ends" were something he said when he had to do something necessary and often unpleasant. She didn't think it could have been the horse, he had rescued their daughter and should be rewarded. The thug they talked to that had broken Eugene out of prison, didn't need extra punishment, they should be let go and rewarded too. Their lives should be full of light too. Just this once it might be best not to dig this up.

"They worked, they actually worked." The queen said with wonder.

"Hm? What worked?" the King was wondering if what he had done tonight were the right things to have done.

"The lanterns. The signal of hope we've been sending all these years, they really did help bring her home to us."

"Yes, they really did."

"What an amazing day."


	19. Chap 19 Rapunzel and the Nightmare

Rapunzel and the Nightmare

"no, No, NOOOO" Came the screams from Rapunzels room near dawn. Swords out, the six guards burst into the room the three doors crashing open,. Eyes scanning the room for threats. The chambermaid rushed straight to the princess, who was thrashing about in the bed. Quickly determining that there was nothing threatening her in the bed. She gripped the sleeping princess and shook her, "M'lady, Princess, Princess Rapunzel. You are home. you are safe!"

"Wa, wa, wa" Rapunzel's eyes flew open, filled with fear, looking wildly around the unfamiliar room and strange people with swords, she was pulling away burrowing backwards into her fish embroidered pillows just as the king and queen came rushing in.

"Rapunzel, are you okay? I'm here for you, mama's here, papa's here." the queen said as she slid next to the bed, gripping her shoulders, as the chambermaid moved quickly and quietly aside. Rapunzel found the face that looked so much like hers floating in front of her. Her lungs panting, she gripped the arms of the person holding her, Rapunzel found the face that looked so much like hers floating in front of her. someone she knew, some one important to her, her mother, her real mother.

With the wail of a brokenhearted child is flung her arms around her real mother. "Oh, mama!" she sobbed clinging to her real mother with all her soul.

The king had moved to the other side of the bed and knelt down, thinking, well that was faster then I thought, and wrapped them both in his protective embrace.

Vaguely he saw the guards lower their swords and move back to their positions, "There, there, you're safe, we love you," he said in his deep comforting voice.

Eugene slide past the door in his socks, running so quickly he didn't make the turn. "Rapunzel, are you okay?"

Soon Rapunzel's sobbing eased and her breathing slowed. Pascal had walked up and nuzzled her side. "It was a nightmare, wasn't it?" Eugene sat down by her feet.

Rapunzel nodded, wiping her eyes.

"You're safe here. You won't be taken again." said the Queen.

"It wasn't about being taken. It was everything being taken from me, Mother turning to dust, Eugene was rotting, the tower was crumbling, even the stars were going out. I couldn't do anything to help. It was so terrible."

"It was only a nightmare, it wasn't real. It's okay. You're safe with us."

Rapunzel nodded and began to relax.

The king and queen adjusted themselves on the bed, just then the chambermaid came back in with a pot of tea and some bread, butter and a variety of jams.

The chambermaid curtsied."I brought some chamomile tea and some things for breakfast, my lady."

"Ah yes, that would be very good, thank you." The tea should help calm her daughter thought the Queen.

They moved to the small table for breakfast, just as the sun peaked over the horizon. Pascal snagged some grapes turning green and purple in turn which fascinated the King. Rapunzel was enjoying the grapes too. She had never had any fruit other then apples and the new flavors delighted her. The bread was much sweeter and whiter and fluffier then what she made back at the tower and was a little jealous of the baker.

The ate quietly but stayed close to each other. Then the women shooed out the men so they could dress Rapunzel and the queen.

Eugene went back to the Green bedroom. It was obvious why it was called the green bedroom. It was all shades of green with some gold paint highlights here and there. It was't bad really, almost like sleeping in the forest only without the roots and rocks sticking into his back. His clothes were missing but he found some laid out for him to wear. They fit well enough. Flynn Rider wouldn't have liked them, too fancy and not well fitted, not like there had been time to tailor the clothes for him.

Eugene was resigned to his fate. He had made bad decisions in his life, he knew that. They had seemed like the best way to get the things he wanted most, but none of that mattered to him any more only Rapunzel mattered. For her he needed to be the best person he could be.

She deserved so much more then what he could give her. To start that he needed to make things right with the King.

He was also going to need time to speak with Rapunzel. He had had no idea what that leap of faith had meant to her. He knew she had hesitated but no one jumps from a height like that without some pause. She had never trusted Gothel that way yet somehow she had trusted him. It humbled him and tore at his heart. At the time he just wanted to save her so she could still get him the crown. But now, now he could never let her down, no matter the cost.

Eugene finished pulling on his boots, they had left them though they had been cleaned. Thanked the butler and walked back to Rapunzel's room.

Eugene was standing outside Rapunzel's door waiting as they finished dressing. Flynn was never one much for standing and waiting. Right now running felt like a good solution, but it wasn't the right solution and he was determined to do the right thing. Rapunzel deserved nothing less from him.

The King came out of his room with his seneschal and saw him. The Kings face became grim. Eugene's stomach lurched into his liver. Flynn Rider had faced down brutal thugs outnumbering him 15 to one, but right now he felt completely outclassed.

A chambermaid came out and said that the Queen and Princess were ready to receive them now, just as the King reached them. The King went in first.

Eugene followed. He saw another maid kneeling behind Rapunzel closing up a sewing box, Flynn Rider appreciated the view of that fine bosom, but Eugene's eyes sought only Rapunzel. She was in a blue dress that reminded him of the ocean on a stormy day.

Author's Note: This is one of the first scenes I created once I started writing, even before I found . Imagine my surprise when I found how common nightmares are for Rapunzel out here. But she does seem to attract them.


	20. Chap 20 Meeting the Bankers

Meeting the Bankers

King Leonard turned to Rapunzel after finishing some strawberry jam toast. "We are going to meet the bankers before the Jubilee. They are going to be hardest hit by what is about to happen so they are getting some warning and meeting the reason of the issue."

"What are bankers?" asked Rapunzel

"They lend money to people who promise to paid them back later with interest."

"Um, what is money?" shyly, Rapunzel knew this was a dumb question but she thought she needed to know.

"Money is a neutral form of exchange for goods and services." chimed in Eugene.

"It's gold, silver and copper in this kingdom."

The seneschal pulled some out. "You never saw anything like this?"

"No, I never knew exactly what Mother did outside of the tower."

"Did you or she ever make a lot of something, and she took it away and came back with something else you wanted."

"Oh yes, we would make lots of candles and she would take most of them and come back with food or a brush, I wore out brushes rather quickly, or for special occasions, paints or a book."

"Well, instead of bartering those candles directly for a brush or book, she probably sold them to a candlemaker for money and then use the money for buying the brush."

"Oh, okay. So why is it so important for me to meet them?"

"Well, because I am about to proclaim a jubilee, and among other things I will be forgiving all debts. "

"That sounds nice."

"It is but in the short term it will hurt them."

"Oh no."

"Your returning to the kingdom is a very good thing and it provides us the very best chance to clean up some things that have been building up of the years. I haven't been a very good king lately and I need to fix some things. Make things right. Start over. I don't want to surprise them with this so we are meeting with them to give them warning so they aren't mad about it. This will be once in their lifetimes but even so it will be a blow to them. If they meet you, then they will understand." He looked at his beautiful daughter hopefully.

"What do I need to do?"

The king considered his daughter, she was so kind and innocent, and unprepared for the intrigue of the court. It would be best to let her be herself, and not give her too much information she'll say things in innocence that might be bad but that may be useful, too.

"You just need to be yourself and talk to them. They need to meet you. I think they'll understand."

"Okay." rapunzel said uncertainly.

"You asked that Eugene and the Pub Thugs be spared, well to spared them would not be fair, indentured servitude is not fair either and so are some of the debts my people have gotten into. You're return to the kingdom gives us a one-in-a-lifetime chance to clean the slate and start over. to make things better for everyone. Unfortunately, we are a large kingdom and so some people will be hurt, one group we know will be hurt will be the bankers to give them so warning will lessen the hurt and to know you will help too. You are such a good person. This is politics but I am hoping they will forgive us, for your sake."

"I'll do what I can to help."

"I know you will. I love you."

"I love you too."

And so Rapunzel met the bankers, rather then a formal meeting around a table the king had them all sit in a an open circle. When the king announced the jubilee there was an uproar, of course. But then he had the Queen and Eugene bring in Rapunzel. At first she wished she had her frying pan with her, but it didn't take long for her to warm up to them and they to her. While they didn't break out in singing and dancing like the thugs did, they were mollified and by the time the meeting broke up they were thinking they were getting a very good deal. Sure, their businesses would be destroyed but they were getting a worthy princess in exchange.


	21. Chap 21 The Jubilee Announcement

The Jubilee Announcement

"My people," the King boomed from the plaza balcony, The square again filled with people, more people then ever before. The proclamation hadn't stated what this was about, but the king knew that rumors had spread long before the proclamation was written.

"I want to thank you first of all for all the years of faith and hope you have given us all these long years. Two days ago all of us launched the sky lanterns to signal hope for the return of the Lost Princess to call her home to our loving arms. They worked. Meet your princess. Princess Rapunzel!"

Rapunzel stepped forward flanked by the Queen and Eugene. There arose a mighty cheer, but underneath there was a buzz of talk.

"I know, I know, that is not the name we gave her, but that is the name she was raised with and it is the name she will be known by."

"Now I wish to honor her rescuers, Eugene Fitzherbert!" There was a another cheer, but the ones nearest the balcony buzzed because he looked a lot like Flynn Rider.

"Maximus" Everyone cheered as he was the most recognizable horse among the palace guard.

"And the Pub Thugs" Some people in the back cheered but most of those in the front gasped and a few small children became to cry. Poor BigNose looked like he wanted to cry too.

"I know what you must be thinking these men are criminals, how could they ever help get the princess home? If you will get to know these honored guests as my daughter did and how I have, you will know just how great a love I have for them and for you my people, Because if these are the type of people who are the criminals in this land, then what must our good people be be like. Let me tell you the tale of how the Lost Princess returned. And it all started with the lanterns."

He launched into the story about why Rapunzel was taken and how Gothel had used her as a slave to her selfish needs for all these years. How the lanterns had called to her, but the horrible abuses of Gothel had kept her in the tower. How the thief Flynn Rider had stolen the Crown of the Lost Princess had escaped the dedicated guards and with great cunning found the hidden tower where she was kept. How she had captured him with a frying pan, Eugene looked suitably embarrassed by that, and the crowed laughed and made him agree to take her to see the lanterns.

He wove a careful tale, his people had honored him all these painful years, and here was a chance to help them reach for higher level. There were honest cheers for the Pub thugs when he got to their part at the Snuggly Duckling, and he honored the palace guard for doing their duty, he did not want them ridiculed. Everyone was leaning forward as he told them of the dam break, and their escape.

They gasped as they learned she had almost been kidnapped again. The cheers that came when he told them of how Maximus and the Pub Thugs rescued Eugene from the prison where the loudest yet. Maximus summoned the strength to rear up once for the crowd, their answering roar was something he would always remember. The Pub Thugs and the Palace Guard were all standing straighter, proud of their parts in this rescue, even though they had not even known they were doing it. The crowd gasped as he told them of Eugene being stabbed. Many were crying as he related his daughter's desperate deal to save his life, his final selfless sacrifice to save her freedom and his death.

"But there was one final drop of magic left by the Sun's gift in our daughter, one last tear that saved Eugene Fitzherbert. Together they brought the exhausted Maximus back. Together proved she was the true Lost Princess, our daughter. Together, with the Pub Thugs they showed me the true quality of the people of this kingdom, the very finest. I am so proud of you all."

"In conclusion, To honor this joyous occasion we proclaim a Jubilee. To honor the freedom of our daughter, we proclaim the freedom of all slaves and indentured servants. To honor these brave men, we bid the prison doors open and beg all of you to find ways to bring them into our community, to help them find their best selves and best place. And finally to honor all the love you have given us all these years, we proclaim all debts be forgiven."

Oh, the cheers that rose that day.

The love the King had expressed to the people sunk into their hearts, they loved their princess and wanted to do her proud. Captain Taygon had been right thinking that the blissed out haze would last a whole week but he had never imagined the whole kingdom being in on it. The people not only welcomed the criminals into their arms but also each other. Everyone tried their best to make someones else's dream come true. Many people began doing completely different things, there was a massive shuffle as everything changed. Those who didn't know what their dreams were, were loved and encouraged to try whatever they wanted to try, as they continued in what they did know how to do and when they found their dream, there was much rejoicing.

Author's Notes: So how do you like how the King handled that?


	22. Chap 22 Dancing and Nap Time

Dancing and Nap Time

Lock Captain Taygon was looking over the crowd they were very happy to meet the Princess she was talking to a group of four little girls in braids in identical dresses. Their parents were nearby and many others were milling around hoping to spend some time time with her. They had 6 of the Lock Guard near the royal family, and a couple of squads of palace guards in the square, that should do well enough.

He had been worried about letting her into the crowds, not so much that there was danger but since she had been stuck in a tower for 18 years with only one other person and a chameleon she might be afraid of all the people. However she had been surprisingly adept at dealing with all the people she was meeting now. There were hundreds in this square alone and she was trying to met each one. The royal couple were doing the same. The king too, looked so much better, almost young again.

The spontaneous outbreaks of dancing had been - odd. They had been out here for 2 hours and there had already been 3 sets of dancing. His men were disciplined enough not to get caught up in it but there was a certain pull to it all.

The Princess was now talking to a portly old man, but something about the rhythm of her speech caught his attention. It had changed, she was talking more quickly and slightly slurred. Wait, had she eaten something and been poisoned? No, not poison, it was too familiar, but it was eluding him. "Oh, now I remember." A wry smile on his face.

Captain Taygon approached the King. "Sire, I suggest that we return the Princess to the palace."

"What, is something wrong, is she in danger?" The father looked around and then to his daughter.

"No, sire, not exactly. But your daughter is beginning to sound like my 4 year old daughter, just before she throws a crying fit and falls asleep. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise as this is only the fourth day she's been out of the tower, meeting all these people is overwhelming even if she doesn't recognize it."

"Heh, true enough. I haven't been out this much for too long. And it is tiring." Turning to his daughter he said. "Rapunzel, let's go back to the palace. We need to hear more of your story."

Rapunzel turned to him, cocking her hip looking like she would argue. Then she bowed her head and say 'Yes, papa."

"Good girl, thank you. We'll come see them more a little later. Tell me more about what happened after you left the Snuggly Ducking"

"Oh, I was so proud of myself, I got a whole room full of ruffians and thugs to let us go, I even gave Hookhand a kiss for being such a sweet man and showing us the secret passage."

They gathered the Queen and Eugene who were standing together and waving to the crowd from the balcony one more time they entered the palace.

"It was amazing. I wanted to know more about Eugene but he asked me a very hard question, but then the guards came running behind us and we had to run."

"The secret passage came out under the dam," mentioned Eugene, taking over the story now as Rapunzel gave a large yawn. "We were cut off by the Stabbington brothers below us, 4 palace guards and a horse behind us. So what does your amazing daughter do, but give me her frying pan and whipped her hair around a beam and swung off to safety."

They sat down in a sitting room, Rapunzel and her papa on a sofa.

"I gotta admit, I felt a little betrayed by that, she's all safe and all I got was a frying pan. The Captain of the guard threw down his torch and pulled out his sword. I was really worried, a frying pan vs a sword, come on. But he just lunged at me, I was able to parry his lunge because the frying pan is so big and then his face is right there on top of the frying pan that I whacked him upside the face with it on the backstroke. All of the guards come at my pretty much the same way and they went down so easy, a frying pan is a great weapon. I was feeling really good about myself, taking out 4 palace guard with a frying pan. Then Max picks up a sword with his mouth. Max is really strong so I have to scramble to just to hold him off. His pushing me all over the cliff trying to get me. Sword fighting a horse with a frying pan was the strangest thing I had ever done."

"I was doing pretty well, until he knocked the frying pan out of my hand. Then Rapunzel used her hair to grab my hand and swing me to safety, she even pulled on it enough to get over the Stabbington brothers, I was so happy that I was mocking them and wasn't watching where I was going and slammed into the sluiceway. Then Max knocked down a support beam to get to Rapunzel, I still had the end of her hair in my hand so I called to her to jump. And she didn't just jump but ran and flew like an angel, I held that hair as tightly as I could so she wouldn't drop. When she landed she was near the Stabbington brothers so I knocked apart the sluiceway to slow them down. Just as I hit the ground and started picking up Rapunzels trailing hair so we could outrun everyone, the dam broke and then we were trying to just outrun the water. There was only one mine entrance close enough to get too, and it was getting more urgent as the water had broke a rock tower and we could see the shadow bearing down on us. We made it and there was the frying pan which I grabbed just as the rock sealed us in. But then the water started coming in. I tried searching under the water for an exit but it was pitch-black, I couldn't see a thing. I wanted to get out but I didn't want Rapunzel to die either, I was beginning to like her and she really didn't deserve to drown in an old mine her first day out of her tower. She was crying about how it was her fault. And the only thing I could think to give her was my real name. Then see told me her hair glowed when she sings. I was wondering if she was going nuts. She started singing just as the water closed in over our heads. I had my eyes closed, praying for a miracle and then there was one - light. a warm golden light pressing on my eyes. I opened them and saw her hair glowing, looking down the length of it we saw a loop of it being pulling into some rocks, it was a way out, we dug as quickly as we could and I was able to get an arm out and then all the rocks broke loose and we were swept out of the mine into the river."

"Oh that's amazing" said the queen entranced she turned and then she saw her daughter's head flopped over onto her husbands shoulder lightly snoring and a gentle smile on her husband's face.


	23. Chap 23 Eugene and the nightmare

Eugene and Rapunzel's auditory nightmare

Eugene Fitzherbert snapped awake to the sound of his name being called. "Rapunzel?" he murmured. Before he was even aware of it he had flung away the soft warm covers of his bed in the Green bedroom and ripped open the door and ran into the hallway completely oblivious to the guards who let him pass.

"Eugene!" It was Rapunzel, it was a call filled with despair, it was the kind of call he would climb from his own grave to answer. He saw the king's robe whip into Rapunzel's room. As his bare feet slapped the cold stone floor, he wondered why was he running so slowly?

"Rapunzel!" He called back to let her know he was coming.

"Eugene!" He could hear how his name tore at her throat, the tears and now sobs that came behind his own name. He bare feet squeaked against the smooth stone floor as he tried to slow down enough to make the turn into Rapunzel's room, catching himself against the door. Her room was filled with guards with swords out, maids, and her parents while she struggled to get herself free from the covers.

"Rapunzel, I'm here."

She wrenched herself free of her bed and parents and threw herself at him. He expected to catch her in a hug but instead she ripped open his shirt and her hands explored the spot where the knife had gone in. Then grabbing him by the collar she pulled him down and kissed him, then put her arms around him in a rib-cracking hug. Where did she ever get so strong?

He closed his arms around her, enveloping her in his love. "It's okay, Goldie, I'm here, you're safe now." He felt her tears on his chest but all he wanted was for her to feel his love.

He looked up. The queen was looking shocked and the king was scowling. Then he remembered that she had ripped his shirt open. He felt uncomfortable, but wasn't going to break the embrace until Rapunzel herself let go.

"Another nightmare I take it?" he felt her nod. "Was I dying again?" this time a shake.

"It was just a sound, the sound of Mother's knife plunging into you, over and over again, getting louder and louder." Rapunzel shivered against him, hugging him tightly again. Eugene felt his skin crawl where that wound had been, that had hurt, a lot.

He rubbed his cheek against her chestnut brown hair, a twinge of guilt for having cut it without permission, but he held her tight and would do so forever if needed.

Eventually, Rapunzel stopped shivering and let go, wiping her eyes with her hands and giving him a brave smile.

The maid with the crossed apron strings was explaining to the queen that she had brought rosemary tea to help ease the princess's nightmares. Eugene used the distraction to button up his shirt as the butler helped him into his robe. The memory of her hot little hands exploring his body burned on his skin.

Author's Note: This was just fun. Eugene is going to have a rough week.


	24. Chap 24 The King and Eugene have a Talk

The King and Eugene have a Talk

The King asked Eugene to come with him and they went into his office. They needed to talk.

The celebration was starting it's second day, after breakfast Rapunzel and the Queen went off with the dressmakers so they could be fitted for the coronation gowns that were being prepared, when Rapunzel would be officially crowned Crown Princess of Corona.

"So Eugene what are we going to do with you?" asked the King as he sat down behind the dark wooden desk that dominated the room. The King wasn't wearing his crown but the back of his chair rose up high enough and being topped with the sun it looked like he was still wearing a crown to Eugene. Eugene knew a talk was coming with the King, The first night in the Green bedroom had been fitful, the Jubilee was wonderful, but what now?

"I am not sure. I'll do anything you want me to, as long as I can stay with Rapunzel."

The King considered Eugene. Eugene Fitzherbert was a completely different person from what he knew about Flynn Rider. He wasn't sure if he was surprised about that or not. Flynn was a a thief and a womanizer. Eugene positively doted on his daughter. Which said much about him but was it enough?

"You have the advantage over me, and as king I haven't had that in a long time." Eugene tried not to snort. He had the advantage over the king, right, he looked around. He'd been to the headmistresses office a few times at the orphanage which seem designed to instill fear in the children. But this room took it to the max. The chair the King was sitting in looked like a throne, the desk was dark and imposing and very solid looking, the ceiling soared high above his head making him feel small. He could guess the street value of all the riches on the walls, not that he cared about that stuff at all now, they had no value at all compared to just being able to look into Rapunzel's deep green eyes for even a minute.

"Oh, yes you do. You brought back the lost princess, that alone is worth half the kingdom and you haven't asked for a castle or even a pile of gold."

"Heh, You know a week ago had you offered me a castle I would have taken it. I was there when HookHand testified, remember. At the Snuggly Duckling we all confessed our deepest dreams to your daughter, I didn't want to, but a couple dozen thugs with swords have a way of making a point. So I did, there wasn't time to make a good lie so I went with the truth; to have a castle to be alone and have a big pile of money to be with. He was right, that dream stunk."

"Oh, and why is that?"

"Because I'd still be with the person I hated most."

"And who is that?"

"Myself."

The king was surprised. "You hate yourself?"

"I hated who I was, I hated Flynn Rider, a person I created after the image of a character from a book. Flynn Rider made getting out of the orphanage easier, he didn't have parents and he didn't need them either."

"The orphanage was hard, wasn't it?"

"Yes, no, it wasn't the orphanage. Now I appreciate what they were trying to do, but they aren't parents and it wasn't the same."

"Did you know your parents?"

"No, not really, mother died giving birth to me, father died after the ax slipped and bit into his leg. I was about 6 when that happened, but he was gone so much of the time trying to provide for me, I hardly knew him. There was no other family that anyone knew about. So they sent me to the orphanage here."

"And you created Flynn Rider because…"

"Because, I loved to read a book, "The Tales of Flannigan Rider" he lead a life that was exciting and glamorous. Flannigan Rider was rich and had lots of friends. Totally and completely unlike poor, orphan Eugene Fitzherbert and the other kids. They liked it when I read it to them, I would dramatize it, play out the parts, I became him and it was easier to deal with the pain an orphan deals with."

"The pain of knowing there should be someone in your life but they are missing. Like dead parents or a kidnapped daughter."

"Yes."

"You can't outrun something that is inside you."

"I know that now."

"So now what?" asked the king, leaning forward.

Eugene thought about that and looked around the room. The Flynn Rider was silently totaling up all the valuables he could see, rich food on gold plates, wine with gold and silver cups on the sideboard, swords and shields on the wall, books and maps in the bookcase, models of ships and a castle, there was even an open chest of gold, silver and jewels piled high in the corner. Yet Eugene considered them valueless and his eyes slid past them without note.

There was a sketch in a little frame on one side of the desk. It was Rapunzel. His eyes lingered on her. He wasn't much of an artist, but it looked like her, though it was done quickly: a few lines to define the face, another for the nose, some scribbles for the hair he had so desperately cut, some smudges for her kissable lips, but those eyes, who ever did it, truly captured those deep, wonderful eyes. The only thing of value in the world to him was Rapunzel.

"My new dream." he whispered.

"What?" asked the king, cocking his head.

"Rapunzel is my new dream. I just want to be the best husband and father for her and our children. I want them to have the love and happiness I never had, but that I feel for your daughter. No child deserves the kind of pain I grew up with. I would do whatever it takes. I know that Rapunzel is to become Queen someday and I know that I am not worthy of her, but I would do what I can to make sure she always feels the love she never got from Gothel."

"You say you are not worthy of my daughter, why is that?"

"Because I am just a thief. I just wanted the crown back so I could sell it. I kept trying to scare her back to her tower. She kept saving my life, no matter what I did to her."

"Didn't you hold her hair so she could swing to safety at the dam?"

"Yeah, but…"

"Didn't you dig the rocks out in the cave as you were drowning?" The king stood up, speaking loudly.

"Well, yeah, but…"

"Did you not confront the Stabbington brothers, alone, at night, on a lonely beach to give them a crown, just so you could keep Rapunzel safe?"

"Yes, but…"

"Did you not break out of my prison and run away with my best horse to go rescue a girl? A girl you did not know was the Lost Princess, just some girl who was in trouble, trapped in a tower by an old women who wanted her power for herself." The king had come around his desk and was pressing closer to Eugene.

"Ah…"

"When you were stabbed, did you not cut off her magic hair so she wouldn't have to keep a terrible promise of staying with the Kidnapper, forever?"

"Yes, but…"

The King towered over Eugene now. "Did you not _die_ so Rapunzel could remain free?" he roared.

"Yes, I did!"

The king raised his arms over his head. "How _dare_ you say you are not worthy of my daughter!" the king thundered.

And then he smiled.

"Ah! Wait, what?" said Eugene, cringed in his chair, totally confused.

The king knelt next to Eugene, and swept his arm around the room. "Look around you. This room is filled with treasures the likes of Flynn Rider always dreamed of, yet you had eyes only for my daughter." The king gestured to the sketch on his desk. "and when pressed your new dream is to be a loving husband and father to her and your children. I can't ask more then this, I would be proud to call you: son."

Eugene's head swam, this was happening too quickly. What had he said to the king? Husband? What did he mean, son? The King waited patiently.

"You mean it would be okay to marry Rapunzel?" Eugene asked in a confused voice.

King Leonard smiled gently. "Yes, yes, it would by okay." He held up a hand. "I do ask one thing of you, please wait at least one year so Rebecca and I may have time to get to know our daughter before giving her to you. You may stay in the room you are now, you will no longer be guarded but you will have a bodyguard. It would make Rapunzel unhappy if someone did something to you."

"Yeah, not to mention how I would feel." Said Eugene and the king smiled. "The ones I'm worried about are the Stabbington brothers, they tend to hold grudges. I didn't see them at the Jubilee and not knowing what they are up to is giving me the creeps."

"Yes, them, I am expecting the Captain of the Guard to report on them, he should be back by now. I think I want to know what happened to them, too." He stood and strode to the door.

Eugene stood more slowly he was feeling a little shaky after that interview with the king, he was still a little unsure of what happened just now, but he would gladly wait a year to marry Rapunzel, men had gone through worse for a wife. And to have a new father and a good man like this to be a son to, what more could a man want. He gently touched the sketch on the desk, he now saw next to it that there was a small painting of the queen and baby Rapunzel. The King really did know what was important. Bemused he also left the room.

Author's Note: You knew this little talk was coming. This was Eugene's big test with the King. Who is Eugene Fitzherbert and can he be trusted? Yeah, I think so.


	25. Chap 25 Eugene & Capt of the Guard

Eugene and the Captain of the Guard

The Captain of the Palace Guard had finally gotten back to the palace, chasing the Stabbington brothers had been a lot of fun, he smirked. He knew he had missed some big announcement yesterday, and it was a very big deal as the people were still dancing in the streets, that had been very odd. He'd go to his office right after reporting to the King to catch up.

He was walking down the cream colored corridor to the Royal quarters, much as he enjoyed being Captain of the Guard being out in the forest was more fun, and now he had to report to the King as quickly as possible, his uniform was still travel stained.

There was a lot going on right now, but he desperately wanted to find Rider. The man had gone from significant nuisance to Corona's second most wanted criminal in a matter of days. The Captain generally didn't have to deal with thieves, but stealing the Crown of the Lost Princess right under the noses of his guards had been too much. He had personally lead the chase, and he had almost got him when Rider had knocked him off Maximus and disappeared. He had continued on foot, linking up with the men he had left with the Stabbington brothers. Then he had gotten a tip that Rider was at the Snuggly Duckling and Maximus had shown them the passage. Maximus was a great horse, the best he'd ever had. He had lost track of Max after the dam broke, and was hoping he'd made it, the rest of his men had but it had taken time to find them all, hopefully he'd make it back to the palace soon.

Loosing that fight with Rider was embarrassing as well, how had he done that with only a frying pan? And that blonde girl with that hair, she must be his new accomplice. He gotten a pretty good look at her, he'd go to the sketch artist later today to make up some wanted posters.

That Rider!

They had had him! Captured on the docks with the crown and he personally was making sure he faced the gallows and what happens, a prison break. When he finally came to, Rider was gone, but his men had captured the whole Snuggly Duckling gang which mollified him somewhat. But he had to do something about that Rider. As far as he knew men were still out there searching for him. The trail had been pretty clear. He wanted to get with his lieutenants to catch up on the news, but he had to report to the king first.

"Escorting" the Stabbington brothers had been satisfying, and as the King himself had asked him to deal with them he did. Had been glad too really. Having them get away after having captured them was an insult and not to be tolerated. Then it had been revealed that they were kidnappers. He could not abide kidnappers, the King had been far more merciful then he would have been.

The King came out of the Royal apartment and seeing him hailed him, "Good morning Captain, how did that little adventure of yours work out?"

"Quite satisfactorily, your Majesty." he boomed with a grin.

Just then Eugene came out behind the King. The captain's eyes flicked to him and then back to the King, he was about to recount what had happened, when his memory nudged him. He looked back.

"Rider? RIDER!" he shouted, drawing his curved saber and striding around the King.

Eugene, who was preoccupied looked up and saw the Captain coming toward him, sword drawn, shouting his old name, he got ready to bolt. The King grabbed the Captain's sword wrist and bellowed, "Captain! Stand down! Eugene Stay!" Everyone stopped.

The Captain looked at his King but kept glancing back at Eugene. "But, sire, do you know who this man is?"

"Yes, Captain, I do. I said, Stand Down!" the King said commandingly. The captain lowered his sword. Eugene wanted to relax but he wasn't there yet. The King released the Captain's arm and he sheathed his sword. Though he looked as though he would gladly pull it out again.

"But, sire…"

"I know, you've been chasing Flynn Rider rather intensely the last few days, but this man is no longer Flynn Rider. This is Eugene Fitzherbert the man that Flynn Rider could never hope to match. He died saving my daughter's freedom and he didn't even know that she was the Lost Princess at the time, she was just a girl in trouble that needed to be rescued. Do you think Flynn Rider would do that?"

"Um, no sire." The Captain was still gazing at Eugene.

"Flynn Rider died, that is enough. Eugene Fitzherbet is not the same man. It is over! Did I not make myself clear yesterday!"

The captain gave his king a look, "I wasn't here yesterday, remember? You sent me and my men off to encourage the Stabbington brothers on their run."

The king cocked his head. "Oh, right. I forgot about that, things have been moving fast lately. I'm sorry, we'll have to bring you up to speed, a lot has happened in the last couple of days. I can't do it myself right now, we must spend time with our daughter, but please talk to the seneschal, he'll fill you in."

"Very well sire, do you still want a report on the Stabbington Brothers?"

Eugene felt the situation had calmed down enough to get a little closer but made sure to stand on the off side of the Captain. "So what happened to them. I didn't see them leave the prison yesterday, and I don't fancy keeping an eye out for them for the rest of my life."

"Oh, they left the prison alright, a little earlier then the other prisoners. The King gave them a simple choice die right there or make a run for the border. They went for a run. The king put quite the price on their heads and let some men and I "escort" them to make sure they didn't stop. They actually did run the whole way. You were right sire, you can make it to the border before sundown."

"Ah, so they taste freedom then." said the King, feeling melancholy about their making it. Eugene started to look worried.

"Well, I don't know about freedom but they did taste dirt." The Captain said with a straight face.

"Dirt?" They said together.

"They did make it to the border just as the sun set and as they passed the border marker they fell face down, they were dead. We buried them on the other side, just so they could be free. I sent an apology to King Stefan for the border violation."

"That was very nice of you, Captain. Good work. Very good." The King said, his mind at ease. Eugene relaxed too.

"Do, go talk to the seneschal, it will take some time to bring you up to speed." the King smiled, and the Captain of the Guard hadn't seen the King smile in a very long time and that made him happy too. He'd do his best for the king.

"I'll get right on it, sire. Thank you."

Author's Note: I've been keeping Eugene and the Captain of the Guard apart this whole time and they finally meet, what great timing. Things are happening fast and keeping up with it all can be a big problem keeping all the characters and timing straight. I don't expect them to be friends anytime soon, but at least they aren't going to be trying to play cops and robbers all the time.

The Captain of the Guard comes off as a hothead in the movie. By this time his frustration level must be off the charts.


	26. Chap 26 Rapunzel and the Great Big Ocean

Rapunzel and the Great Big Ocean.

The King and Queen were showing Rapunzel and Eugene around the palace. It was her new home so she needed to have a tour. They were up in one of the towers, explaining about some particular ancient relative on the wall, when they realized that Rapunzel was no longer with them.

They saw her back in front of a large window, she was just standing there, shivering, holding her arms out like she was trying to keep from falling.

Eugene ran back to her and caught her up in a hug. "Are you alright?"

Her parents were right behind him.

"It's. so. big." She whispered. Her already large eyes were huge, and staring at the ocean.

Eugene looked and it was a beautiful, clear day outside. The window faced away from land and it had a completely clear view of the ocean. The ocean was dark blue and still, the sky azure and cloudless. It was like looking into forever.

"I'm sorry, but it is so much bigger then anything I've seen, except the sky."

"Of course, I should have thought. That tower of yours is in a small canyon. It was only a few hundred feet across. Of course, you're scared. Please, let's get away from the window." said Eugene turning.

"No, please, I'm not scared, I'm just not used to it yet. Thank you for holding me, it just felt like I was going to fall into it. It's so beautiful."

King Leonard put one arm around Rapunzel and the other around his wife and they just looked out the window. After a long moment he said, "I had forgotten that such simple beauty still existed."

Another long silence stretched out along the vista of the open ocean and sky.

"What's happening down there?" Rapunzel was looking down and pointing.

"Those people are swimming." said Eugene seeing a few people frolicking on a beach.

"What's swimming?" asked Rapunzel, trying out the word on her tongue.

"If you're going to become princess of a seafaring nation, you have _got_ to learn how to swim, and this is a 'first' that your parents can help you with." Eugene said with a wide grin. Both the king and queen got excited looks on their faces and the King dragged them all back to their rooms for a change of clothes before heading down to the beach.

Being an excellent climber, it didn't take Rapunzel long to get the basics of swimming and after a few pointers from the local pod of dolphins, she was splashing about with the best of them. Even the king and queen joined in for the synchronized swimming sequence with the dolphins.

Author's Note: Rapunzel grew up in a tower in a small canyon, it looks to be 500 feet or so from the window to the cave entrance wall, that is so tiny as to be scary. But at some point she is going to see the sea in a spectacular way. (say that 5 times fast). She isn't agoraphobic or anything like that, she has enough emotional land mines to deal with, but it would be a significant experience for her.


	27. Chap 27 The Queen Has a Rough Lunch

The Queen Has a Rough Lunch

"Mother would guilt me into doing things by saying she had bathed, changed and nursed me." commented Rapunzel as they sat around the lunch table.

"She nursed you!" King exclaimed as the Queen went very still and pale.

"So she said, but I have no idea if it is true or not. There is so much that she said that was a lie." said Rapunzel sadly, looking down, her spoon idly wandering around her vegetable soup.

"Is that even possible?" the King asks.

"Yes it is, dear, that is how a wet nurse works. It isn't easy but, you don't need to have had a baby to produce milk." says the Queen, neutrally.

"That officially creeps me out." quips Eugene, with a shiver.

"If you'd excuse me, please." The Queen leaves the room, without waiting for a response she stands and glides away with all the regalness she can muster as everyone watches.

After several minutes the Queen returned, her eyes red.

"Are you all right dear?" asked the King.

He knows that she spends a rather large amount of time crying lately. She had disappeared from time to time during the day lately, but this was the first time she had ever left in the middle of something. Was that a shard of glass on her shoulder?

She nods, and after a sip of water she says "Yes, dear, I'm fine," in a rough, hoarse voice and a sad kind of smile. The King knew he needed to spend some extra time holding his wife tonight.

Author's Note: I was going over the lyrics of Mother Knows Best and that creeped me out but inspired a great conversation. The queen is having a hard time. It's about to get worse.

If you really like this story go to the TVTropes Tangled FanRec page and add it to the list and send it to your friends, which is a new feature.


	28. Chap 28 The Queen's Desire

The Queen's Desire

*Author's Note: A quick little flashback scene for the Queen and King.

King Leonard was looking out the window, not really thinking or anything. He was mired in depression, it had been 12 long lonely years without his daughter. They had launched the lanterns last night and still no sign of her. She should be entering puberty now, becoming a woman. They had missed so much of her life already, how much more could they take?

Queen Rebecca came into his study. He truly admired his queen, she had so much hope about the return of their daughter, she even suggested the sky lanterns to call her home.

She sat down on the love seat and he sat next to her. Queen Rebecca was looking down at the floor. Worried, he took her hand in his he asked, "How are you ,dear?"

"Promise me, that when we find the kidnapper, that she'll be mine to deal with as I see fit."

King Leonard was surprised, he knew his wife often cried herself to sleep, but this is the first time she had asked about the kidnapper.

The laws had been changed to allow more latitude in dealing with kidnappers following the abduction of their daughter. He had compiled quite a list of possible punishments, some, frankly most, sickened him. He kept it in a secret locked file.

He loved his wife very much, and didn't want to see her sink into barbarism.

"What do you have in mind, dear?" he said cautiously.

"I've thought about it long and hard and I know what I want. I want to drink her blood, all of it." Queen Rebecca said utterly calmly, still gazing at the floor.

"You want to drink her blood." King Leonard said slowly, he was beyond shocked.

"Yes, that's all. I will say to her after the trial, that

I am Queen Rebecca,

you stole my daughter,

and I am going to drink your blood.

We are going to hang her by her heels from the plaza balcony, everyone in the kingdom will be invited to come, I will wear my crown and my wedding dress." She continued in that calm, calm voice.

"Your wedding dress, why on earth for?" The Kings eyebrows were trying to lift past his hairline.

"Because it's white and I want everyone to be able to easily see the blood of the Kidnapper, if I spill any. I will just nick her throat. I found the cutest knife at the celebration yesterday, just perfect for the job. I don't really want to spill any, I want to drink it all."

"She will not be gagged, she can taunt and plead, and I will order the crowd to be silent so we can hear her, but in the end she will go silent as I drink all her blood, myself." Elegant Queen Rebecca finished in that calm, calm voice, that sent shivers up her loving husband's spine.

"Promise me that she'll be mine, pretty please." she looked up at her husband with those eyes. Those huge, green, sad, puppy-dog eyes that he couldn't resist. He knew she was using her eyes against him, but right now he didn't care.

"She is yours, I promise." the king said to his queen. He had had his own exotic punishments in mind for the Kidnapper, but now he fervently prayed that the kidnapper might be killed before his wife gets a hold of her.

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*Author's Note: Scary Queen is scary. The Queen wanted to go all Inigo Montoya on Gothel. A little creepy, but there is such a sense of determination from her, 18 years of hoping will do that, that this seems just what she would do.

Would Gothel deserve it?

Would you want the queen mad at you?

Come on, tell me, tell me, please.


	29. Chap 29 The Queen Gives Eugene a Talk

The Queen Gives Eugene a Talking To

Queen Rebecca, Light of Corona, was watching her daughter over dinner. Rapunzel took such delight in each new experience, sometimes she needed encouragement and sometimes not, but something about her daughter was bothering her. The incident with the orange could be waved aside due to being something she never had before, but she had been choosing a set of foods that bothered her for some reason. There was something about the foods Rapunzel was taking seconds and thirds of that reminded her of something and the queen just couldn't pin it down. Was something wrong with her wonderful daughter?

It was dinnertime again. It was summertime and the fruits and vegetables were wonderfully ripe, and the chef was outdoing himself. The fish course was an oil-poached flounder with lemons and herbs that was delectable. They stopped Rapunzel from biting down on an olive, just keeping an close eye on Rapunzel so she didn't hurt herself on an unfamiliar food was an adventure. Rapunzel took thirds of the kale, which the queen thought was too garlicky.

During the cheese course Rapunzel swirled a pickle in a spreading cheese, she was going to have to reminder her daughter that wasn't polite, you should put some on your plate and then play with it. She popped the cheesed pickle in her mouth and eyes closed, crunched contented away.

The queen smiled as she picked up her glass for a sip, her daughter looked so happy, the last time she remembered enjoying a pickle that much was …

Crash!

"Are you all right, dear." asked the king. Everyone was looking at her.

"Um, yes, dear. I'm sorry my glass slipped, that's all." recovered the queen. After a moment the conversation picked up again.

Now the queen was looking at Eugene. He was so attentive of Rapunzel, and was always there for her, seeing to her needs, positively doting on her. She pursed her lips.

"Eugene, after you escaped from the cave, Rapunzel healed you, what did that feel like?"

"Oh, um, it felt, um, warm I guess." Eugene stammered, the question had nothing to do with the conversation and the intense gaze of the queen unnerved him for some reason. "To tell you the truth the situation was a little freaky. I hadn't come all the way down from the excitement of finding ourselves still alive. Gathering some firewood and starting the fire had helped but my hand was hurt so getting the fire going had taken a while, it was dark by then. Goldie got all cryptic on me and started wrapping her hair around my hand. Which I had just seen glow like the sun while we were busy drowning. Who knew what else it did? She asks me not to freak out, which is not the most comforting thing to say under the circumstances. When she starts singing and the glow is coming toward me, Pascal doesn't exactly help with his comments."

Pascal gives a shrug.

"The glow finally reaches my hand and it starts to feel warm, like sunshine on a summer morning, under the hair I can see the wound glowing too. When the song ends and the glow faded I unwrapped my hand, it was as good as new. I almost lost it then. Magic, glowing hair that heals. Wow. She then tells me why she never left the tower, the answer to the question I asked her in the passage from the Snuggly Duckling. The hair was a gift that needed to be protected and that she would go back after seeing the lights. Then I told her about myself how and why I became Flynn Rider. I was embarrassed about that but she deserved it. Then I went to get more firewood, and she told me she liked Eugene better then Flynn."

They took each others hands, and the queen's eyes narrowed at that.

Rapunzel took up the story, "Then Mother came and tried to take me home, but I didn't want to yet, I wanted to see the lights and I was thinking that Eugene liked me too. She gave me the crown to test him to see if he would leave or not. If the crown was more important to him then me."

"Then I came back with a load of firewood. I was so tired from coming down from the rush I was babbling something about my hand while I built up the fire to keep us warm. Rapunzel and Pascal settled down on a little hill. I was a little envious of all that hair to sleep under, but I was still a little freaked out about it. I found a nice rock for a pillow on the other side of the fire and then we fell asleep."

The queen looked thoughtful.

"What sound does complete and utter betrayal make?" asked Rapunzel breaking eye contact with Eugene.

"It doesn't make any sound at all." said the queen offhandedly.

"Oh. So she lied about that. I still wonder how she found us?"

"Well, we did leave a trail of devastation about a mile wide and seventy feet of glowing blonde hair stands out quite a bit, it wouldn't take a bloodhound to follow us." quipped Eugene.

"I guess."

After dinner, the queen asks Eugene to come to her sewing room. The queen's sewing room was her personal office, much like the king's study. Her private place was her personal library, it was nice and quiet there, but this was more serious. This was where she would deal with things that needed a woman's touch.

"Please, have a seat." the queen invited Eugene as she leaned on her desk with her arms folded.

Eugene was thinking, "What have I done now?"

"So, my husband has told me we can trust you now. Tell me of your feelings about my daughter."

"She's my new dream, she is my reason for living, being alive at all, really. I just want to be a good husband and care for her."

The queen tilted her head considering that. It wasn't quite the answer she was looking for.

"Eugene, have you known my daughter?"

"Only for four, no five days now. The most exciting time of my life and that's saying something."

Eugene smiled, he was trying to lighten the mood.

Sadly, he failed.

Miserably.

The queen's face hardened, she stood right in front of him, delicate hands on ample hips. Eugene smile, didn't just slide off his face, it sorta dropped off and flopped on the floor like a fish out of water.

"Okay, forget subtlety, since you seem to be deliberately missing the point. Either you are being stupid on purpose or you really have no idea what I'm talking about.

Have you gotten Rapunzel pregnant?"

Eugene's jaw bounced off of the floor. "What? No! I haven't touched her."

The queen considered him. Flynn Rider was on the floor of Eugene's mind laughing so hard he couldn't breathe.

"Oh, come on. I'm never going to live down being Flynn Rider, am I?" Eugene said irritatedly.

Queen Rebecca's mouth twitched. "Okay, I believe you."

"Thanks a lot."

"Okay, you've been honest with me, I'll be honest with you. Here's what's up. I've been noticing that Rapunzel has been eating, oddly."

"Well, it might be because she's trying out new things. I mean, remember when she took that bite out of the orange."

The queen tried not to chuckle at the memory, saying it was a fruit like an apple didn't make it so you eat it like an apple. "No, I mean that she is eating things in odd combinations or eating extras of certain things, just like when I was pregnant with her. And you're sure she had never been out of the tower before?"

"Absolutely, you weren't there so you didn't see any of this. I was halfway down the tower when she rode her hair down to the ground. She was afraid of _grass_. Dandelion fluff completely captured her attention. When she ran for the exit, it was with everything she had. She spent the next 3 hours flip-flopping between ecstasy for being Outside and depression for having disobeyed Gothel. The only time she had been out of the tower before that was when she was with you when she was born. I'd bet my life on that."

The queen was considering other possibilities."What about another visitor?"

"Then she wouldn't have needed me as a guide, now would she?"

The queen frowned. "Now why would she need to eat like that?"

"I have no idea."

Out of options she would have to talk to Rapunzel, but not directly.

Queen Rebecca was holding her crying daughter again this morning. "Oh, mama, won't the nightmares ever stop?" Rapunzel wailed.

"They should fade in time, dear. You've been through so much, and it may be a way that you're coping with it all. You are the sunshine of my soul and I am here for you." The queen said looking deeply into those eyes that looked just like her own.

"You warm me and I am glad I am home." Rapunzel replied.

They may not be able to say "I love you" directly to each other right now, Gothel had poisoned those words, but they could certainly come up with another phrase to say the same thing. It was a little cumbersome, but it worked.

And admiring the painting of the tower on the wall that Rapunzel had been working on.

And starting breakfast that included Rosemary tea, which Rapunzel commented on not liking very much, but was told should help with the nightmares. Her mama took the opening, "Rapunzel, I realize that I have no idea what your favorite foods are. Will you tell me?"

"Oh, of course. There was hazelnut soup, and apple pie and cookies." said Rapunzel eagerly as she poured a lot of salt onto her eggs.

"And what else did you eat?" she asked very casually.

"Oh, the normal stuff, bread not as good as this but as good as I could make it. Eggs, I can cook eggs 107 different ways. Parsnips, onions, garlic, and shallots. Milk was pretty common but not always. Oh, and Mother would occasionally bring back berries and herbs she found along the way."

"And that was it?"

"Yup, I think so, nothing like this."

Eugene was looking like he wanted to talk about this some more, but the queen kicked him under the table.

"So what is on the agenda for today?" Rebecca asked cheerfully. But inside she was worried, it didn't sound as though Rapunzel was fed a very good diet. Had her hair been keeping her alive as it had Gothel? Only from keeping back age, it was keeping Rapunzel from malnutrition? It certainly seemed possible, the hair had been able to stave off age and death, so why not malnutrition.

An ugly thought reared its head, had Gothel been trying to keep Rapunzel down by not feeding her correctly? Keeping her small and stunted, easier to control. Queen Rebecca's jaw began to ache. She was going to have to go to her screaming place after breakfast.

Her personal library, was a quiet place for reflection and contemplation, but so often Rapunzel would reveal some facet of her life that showed Gothel as the selfish, controlling, soul-crushing witch she was, Rebecca would have go to her library and scream out her hate and her rage, and throw things, it seemed to help, for a little while at least.

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Author's Note: A rough time for mama, finding out Gothel nursed Rapunzel was bad, thinking Rapunzel is pregnant is worse, long-term malnutrition, oh man.

Why is Rapunzel so short compared to everyone else? The hair could easily fix malnutrition, so she must just be a short person. But the thoughts about how things would have to change without her magic hair and what she would start to crave and how her mother might see that, made for some great fun with poor Eugene caught in the middle, again.

What do you think? Did anyone guess the pregnancy question before Eugene?


	30. Chap 30 Rapunzel and Gen Max

*Author's Note: The last few chapters focused on the queen. But I am not sure I got the order right. Do you think that the The Queen's Desire was good where it was, should have been first or last?

I was also surfing through TVTropes and found that there is actually a blood stained wedding dress trope, I found it after I had written that chapter. So it i s just funny that happened that way.

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Chap 30 Rapunzel and General Maximus

The King was giving a another speech to the crowd in the plaza in front of the palace.

He was telling them why he was so impressed by what Maximus had done to rescue the girl, who just happened to be the Lost Princess.

Doing the right thing often had greater consequences then you knew at the time.

He described how Max had gotten the Pub Thugs, taken them to the prison and showed them the building that was close to the prison walls, it took a few tried but they figured out what he wanted to do. They then had simply rushed the prison to get Flynn Rider, prisons generally don't get attacked from the outside, getting in had been easy but the gates slammed shut behind them.

Max knew he could jump to a neighboring building if he could get up to the top of the wall, a person couldn't make it but the most powerful horse in the kingdom could. He had nearly broken all his legs a dozen times over trying to get up the spiral stair case to get to the top, sliding backwards several times, while the thugs had broken into teams to try and find Rider.

They were to get him up to the top of the wall, he would take it from there. When the guards had responded from the barracks, Max was worried, but the thugs found a solution, a couple of steps backwards and a half step to the left and Rider had landed right in his saddle. And with a running start they were off to save the nice girl with the blonde hair.

"In honor of doing these great deeds, and of being the best horse in the kingdom, I promote Maximus to General of all Horses of the Kingdom of Corona."

A great cheer rose from the crowd. Rapunzel picked up the specially-made General's helmet. Maximus lowered his head and she attached the red-plumed helmet to his head. His tail was wagging like crazy and she gave him a kiss.

Rapunzel thought Max looked very regal and general-ly as the review of troops began.

Rapunzel couldn't believe what she was seeing.

The seneschal had told them that they were going to be reviewing the troops today and she had asked on what subject. Papa had told her that meant that the troops would dress up nice and walk past them so they could see them. They were doing it to honor the Princess and General Maximus, to show how much they cared. These were the men who had pledged their lives to defend the kingdom. Hundreds of men in shining armor marched past, other rode on horses and even ships sailed by with the rigging filled with men in bright white uniforms.

It was so beautiful, but it also reminded her that the world was a dangerous place. Not as dangerous as Mother had always told her, but dangerous enough. She had almost believed Mother was right about the world. She had doubted when she had found out the Pub Thugs dreams, but then all those scary men had come and then even the very water and rocks seemed to be attacking them.

In the cave before Eugene had given her that most precious gift, she had truly believed that Mother was right. But they lived, and so she doubted again. But when she believed that Eugene had left her she knew Mother was right, that betrayal had hurt the worst. She went home in tears, determined never to leave the tower again, because Mother was right about Outside, it destroyed everything good. Then the vision came and everything changed and Mother's lies were exposed.

Papa had explained the reasons for having an army and a navy. Most of the world is good but there were some who weren't, like the Stabbington brothers and Gothel. He had pulled out a map and given her a tour of the world and an explanation of those other kingdoms and countries that were friends and enemies, the good and the bad. And so they had an army and a navy to protect themselves and others, much like a very big frying pan.

Rapunzel did think that the boots were very noisy. She still preferred to go barefoot, it was so much easier to move and it was quieter too. Rapunzel looked at her mama and tried to look just like she did. Queen Rebecca looked so regal and her daughter tried to too, she did pretty well.

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*Author's Note: One of you dear reviewers asked if I was going to give a detailed account of what happened at the prison. I didn't think it was possible, I was wrong. It just came out of the Great Creative Engine of the Universe and I captured it in print. I am amazed myself. Thank you for your faith in me.


	31. Chap 31 The Seneschal and Mother Gothel

Chap 31 The Seneschal and Mother Gothel

Rapunzel couldn't sleep. She was undoubtably tired, meeting all those people was overwhelming, and they all seemed to love her, especially the children. They had been waiting for her for so long, it was so hard to deal with all that emotional energy. Yesterday at the end of the Jubilee she had fallen into bed and slept immediately for all she had a nap in the afternoon. But today she had found no sleep. It was all so exciting and so new. She felt unworthy of all this and deeply humbled.

She was also afraid to sleep, sleep brought nightmares, and they were so much worse then any she had ever had before. Even the worst thunderstorms where the lightning licked at the bowl her tower sat in and the thunder echoed and echoed, were as nothing compared to these nightmares. They had given her rosemary tea before bed to help with the nightmares, she drank it for her parent's sake, but it tasted awful, and it hadn't worked yet.

When her parents had tucked her in tonight she had lain quietly and kissed them goodnight. and when everyone was gone and the curtains pulled and guards stationed she pulled out the small box she had bumped her head on. On it was note, "For memories. -Eugene"

Pascal climbed up to her should and gave a squeak asking what was inside. She opened it, and smiled, it was a small paint kit. One thing that drove her crazy about her new room was how fancy but totally bare it was. The walls had huge open spaces, t hat were framed in with fanciful borders, they were just calling for something to fill them.

Now was a good time. Hopping out of bed and padding over to the wall on the end of her bed she started with her tower. After painting grass and the waterfall, and starting up the base she considered how she really didn't know what the tower looked like on the outside. The first time she left she had been too excited at leaving to look back. When she got home it was dark and only had a outline of how it looked, and the last time... The last time had been too painful to look back, so much had changed, Mother was gone and so was her magic hair, everything that she had known that made her special was left behind.

Rapunzel was special here in Corona, but it wasn't the same.

Well, she wasn't looking for accuracy anyway and painted the tower as she knew it from the inside.

It didn't take long to finish a rough version of the tower, She'd have to wait for the paint to dry anyway before adding details. But first she added a long line of bright yellow, with a curl at the end, to remember her hair by. She missed it so much so many times these past two days, sometimes she had wanted to hide in it but more often she had wanted to heal someone, there were so many people with injuries she could have helped once. She had had some quiet time today, ostensibly for a nap, but she had spent the whole time crying for those people. Mother had been so selfish, we could have helped so many people and it wouldn't have hurt her to have shared. It isn't as though she could only heal once a day or something.

Mother... Rapunzel rolled the brush between her fingers. She could already feel the memory of her fading. All the new things were crowding her out. A part of her wanted that memory to go away but another part of her said, "Do you, really? For better or worse she raised you and you called her mother and you loved her." There were tears in Rapunzel's eyes. She had to paint her, but not here, not out in in the open all the time. Looking around she choose a spot next to one of the windows, she could cover Mother with the drape and see her only when she wanted too. She set to work.

"Good morning, your Majesties, Highness, Eugene." said the seneschal Mortimer Danberry poking his head in, "Would you like the morning report, sire?" He had stopped trying to get the royal family together without Eugene, He may not be a royal and shouldn't have access to this information but he was always with the princess and since she was always with her parents, well there was no use in trying to exclude him.

"Yes, Mortimer, Now is a good time, before things get too busy. But first look at what Rapunzel painted last night." Pointing to the unfinished painting of the tower. Mortimer was shocked that she had painted on the walls, but she's a princess and they can do just about anything. "Very nice, your Highness." he said before turning around. He started to open his folder and turned around.

Files spilled down as his eyes caught sight of another painting, almost hidden by a drape. It was a stunning women with raven black hair and a red dress and he knew her.

"W-who is that?" he asked pointing with a shaking hand.

Everyone turned around, they hadn't noticed that picture being occupied with Rapunzel and the other painting on the opposite side of the room.

"Um, that's Mother." said Rapunzel shyly. "I am beginning to forget what she looked like so I painted her before I did. Please don't freak out. I am not sure if I want to keep it but I don't know if I want to forget either." They considered the painting. She was tall, Rapunzel had painted her life-sized, her arms outstretched like she was ready to give a hug, it was the one way she wanted to remember Mother, ready to give love.

He was mouthing the word no, finally, "But I've seen that person."

"What!" shouted everyone.

"When we were searching for you I saw her, I met her as I was tracking down a lead on a blonde child. I found her in a broken down pub in the forest. She claimed to be just passing through to King Stefan's kingdom. I remember her because she was quite comely and very scared of all the guards and hubbub from the kidnapping. I didn't check the baby since she was obviously not even close to the look of the kidnapper. "

He fell to his knees in front of Rapunzel, "Your Highness, I'm so sorry, I was so close to you, I could have saved you and spared you so much pain. I failed you, I'm so sorry." He began to sob into her skirts.

Rapunzel was completely shocked by all this. She had no idea how to react, but she tried to help. "Please, it's okay, I'm home now, please, stop crying."

King Leonard came around to be next to his faithful seneschal. "Mortimer, it's okay. It was an impossible task, you couldn't have known that the kidnapper could change her very age. That she would look so different. Someone get a copy of the wanted poster."

One of the Lock Guard removes a copy from his pocket and hands it to the king. "Thank you."

He unfolds it and hold it up. "Look Mortimer, look. This is the face of the kidnapper that we saw, old and wrinkled with sunken eyes. She only vaguely looks like this wanted poster. She is obviously not old. Please, Mortimer, don't blame yourself for something you couldn't control."

"But sire, I was within arms length of your stolen daughter," tears streamed down his face. "All I had to do was reach out and flip back the blanket and she would have been safe."

"No, she wouldn't have been, you'd be dead." Eugene spoke up. Everyone looked at him now. "Gothel would have killed you and all your men too and everyone else in that pub, to keep Rapunzel."

"But…"

"BUT, I _fought_ her." Overrode Eugene. "I fought her and lost every time. I don't care how many men you had with you, you and they would have died. I was the greatest thief in the kingdom, she also defeated the Stabbington brothers, two of the strongest toughs in the kingdom. Starting with nothing more then a satchel with a crown and a wanted poster in it, she found us, turned the Stabbington brothers to her purposes and then twisted everything we did, so that Rapunzel _wanted_ to go back to the tower, _and_ the Stabbington brothers and I would be hanged for our crimes. If it wasn't for good, smart Maximus and the Pub Thugs her plan would have worked and the only evidence that she had been involved would have been a whiff of her perfume on the bodies. She was a terrifying opponent because I didn't even know I was fighting her. Had you turned back that blanket you and your men would be dead and Rapunzel would still be in her power. You, sir, are the luckiest man I have ever met."

Mortimer wasn't exactly sure how to take that compliment.

"He's right, " said the King. "We've put more wanted posters out for her then even Flynn Rider, she was the only other person to breach the palace defenses and we know she was a formidable opponent. I, for one, am glad you are still with us."

"Mortimer, I knew you cared for us and her, but I never knew how deeply that went, thank you." said the queen.

The king held out his hand to help his faithful, good seneschal up. "Come, let's have the morning report, we have a big day ahead of us."

Author's Note:

Rapunzel's relationships with her mothers are complex, so this touches on that.

This also finishes a little thing with the seneschal that just went to all kinds of fun places. When I wrote it, oh so long ago now, it was something to add some color to this new character. But wow what came out weeks later is awesome.

When you stop to think about it Gothel is a really terrifying opponent. Granted, she isn't Maleficent who had a delicious, studied, dramatic cruelty to everything she did. Gothel on the other hand has a casual, almost unconscious evilness that is breathtaking, mainly because it isn't showy at all. You'd almost dismiss it to bad luck, then to blame her when you find yourself dead. Even if you told someone about her, no one would believe you because there would be no evidence she was even there.

She's a Batman-level sneaky villain and not nearly as well funded. I'd put her just after Maleficent as second best Disney villain, but not by much, considering there are gods and genies in that mix, it should tell you something. I believe she is only the second to actually kill the hero and the first to do it while he's in human form. Very impressive, as Darth Vader would say. Sure, you might say that she's has several centuries to hone her chops, I'd say not so. I mean hiding a flower is not all that evil, controlling Rapunzel was and she had lots of practice, but that she could transfer that to others speaks volumes. Still showing up in hades and explaining to the other villains that a tiny chameleon took her out would be embarrassing, poor girl. :


	32. Chap 32 Eugene and the Leap of Faith

Chap 32 Eugene and the Leap of Faith

Things were getting out of hand for Eugene. Staying near Rapunzel was wonderful, but there had been so many people to meet, ceremonies and things going on, it was all starting to mush together in his head. He was glad for the seneschal that made sure they were all in the right place at the right time. Not that just being with Rapunzel wasn't distracting enough, then there were all the drinks people were buying for him. Here they were for some other … important something or other, whatever, it was all beginning to run together in his head. Rapunzel was the important thing to him right now.

She'd be talking about some chore she had done in the tower and he'd be enraptured, his eyes lingering on the curves of her face.

They'd be sitting across from one another at a state dinner and he'd get lost in those enormous eyes, he could hear Flynn Rider off gagging in some far off corner of his mind, and he didn't care. But it was embarrassing when the person next to him started sniggering when his side of the conversation got lost in those big, beautiful green eyes.

He wanted to get her alone just to talk, but there was no time that he could carve out for themselves. He could leave for a little while, but it was painful to be apart from Rapunzel anymore. He couldn't resent the royal couple wanting all the time possible with their daughter.

And the dancing, he'd never danced so much in his life. It seemed if there were more then 10 people about and music there was dancing within a few minutes of Rapunzel coming into the room. He'd fall into bed exhausted and be up at dawn to comfort Rapunzel's nightmares.

Those were beginning to concern him, heck, they concerned everyone, even the kitchen staff who were spiking her food with all sorts of herbs and spices that were supposed to relieve nightmares. Ever since his little talk with the Queen he'd been watching what she eats with greater attentiveness.

Eugene desperately needed to talk with Rapunzel. He wanted her alone, since it was probably going to be intensely personal, but he didn't think that was going to happen anytime soon, not between her parents, officials, guards and maids.

He had wanted to try talking at breakfast but the seneschal had his breakdown over that picture of Gothel. How he loathed Gothel! Everything she had done had been an attempt to kill him, and crush Rapunzel's soul and she succeeded. One last drop of magic had saved him at the last but still. But what was worse was how she had treated Rapunzel. When he had told Goldie that she needed to break her mother's heart and crush her soul, he had never meant anything like this and yet, the more he heard of her story the more literal it became. Gothel was actually doing those things to Goldie. The worst part was he could remember what she said after she had stabbed him, "Look at what you've done, Rapunzel." She still had the dripping knife in her hand and she _dared_ blame Rapunzel!

Rapunzel had loved Gothel, maybe even still did, that painting bothered him a whole lot, with her smile and outstretched arms. He had gone through a lot of work to sneak that painting kit into Rapunzel's room. Well, not exactly sneak, not with a platoon of guards all over him all the time, but a surprise gift for her. He'd seen how the tower was decorated and that was an obvious gift. He was glad that she had started painting her room, but that picture of Gothel, it bothered him. Well, it least it spent all of it's time behind a drape.

But what was bothering him more right now was that he really wanted to talk to Rapunzel about her leap of faith at the dam. He had never even thought of letting her fall. True, he wasn't in love with her yet at the time, though admittedly, he did have a fascination for her, that had started as soon as she had stepped out of the shadows back in the tower.

But Eugene felt guilty. He had betrayed his accomplices, the Stabbington brothers, just hours earlier that day. And had done his best to scare her back to the tower so he could get his satchel back. But she had known that trusting Flynn Rider was not something to do lightly and she was right, and it gnawed at him.

When he had created Flynn Rider, sure he was a thief, but he tried to be noble and honorable. That didn't last very long. If you could steal from a person you could certainly lie to them, and it had spiraled down from there. The Stabbington brothers had been right to demand the satchel before giving him a boost up that cliff, he couldn't be trusted.

Eugene Fitzherbert wanted to be trusted, he wanted to be known as a man of his word. That is why he had asked for justice from the King the night they came back, though he was still relived that they had come up with the Jubilee to solve that problem.

Here he was watching Rapunzel talking to some well dressed men and women, he couldn't remember what group they represented anymore, it was all becoming such a blur, about the only thing he was sure of was they weren't the lollipop guild.

He spied an open love seat by the window and noting a lull in the conversation, smoothly excused the Princess from the group. "Where are we going?" asked Rapunzel with a curious smile her warm hand finding his that was on her waist. "Not far, Goldie, just over here. I just think we need a second off of our feet," and gently placed her on the love seat and sat next to her.

"Why do you still call me Goldie? My hair is brown now."

"You still have a heart of gold."

"It's just its been days since we've had any time to talk, and I don't know when we'll have a chance again and I just need to talk to you."

"Um, okay." this intensity was a little disconcerting coming from Eugene.

"This is not really the place I want to do this but I can't stand it anymore." he paused for a breath.

"Yes." what was he up to?

"At the dam when you had to jump, when I was holding your hair, you had to think before you did it. You had to decide if you could trust me. For some reason that had been eating at me for these past few days."

"But I did trust you, I did jump and you held me up."

"Yes, but that is not the point. You are so wonderful. Flynn Rider... I never considered letting you fall. You had just saved my life 3 times in the past 10 minutes. And I was trying to scare you back home."

"Maybe, but you did save me from the Stabbington brothers by knocking apart that waterway, and then you gave me your real name and the idea I needed to give us the light we needed so you could dig us out of the cave."

"I don't want you to ever _have_ to think if you could trust me again. I don't want to be the kind of person who can't be trusted. I love you too much." said Eugene looking into those magnificent green eyes.

"Oh, Eugene. I do trust you and I love you too."

"I know you do, even if no one else does." Eugene said miserably.

"I trust you." said the King from right behind Eugene, who jumped.

"As do I, and I love you too," said the Queen who came around to be behind Rapunzel, putting her hands on her shoulders.

Eugene looked around, the whole room was silent, looking at them. He started to turn redder then Pascal, who was looking very red.

"Well, it looks like the Prince Consort is getting a jump on his duties. How about we formally invest him with that responsibility?" announced the King to the room at large. Who cheered in response.

Eugene wanted to melt into the floor. He had completely forgotten, this was supposed to be when they made him the Prince Consort to the Princess.

Author's Note: Eugene, I love you man. You're trying so hard to be good, but there are so many distractions. It's been an off week, it's not normally like this.

I was watching Tangled and had to pause it just at the jumping scene when she blinked, but for some reason when I got back to it, it just looked like she was thinking about trusting Flynn.


	33. Chap 33 Rapunzel and the Secret Painting

Chap 33 Rapunzel and the Secret Painting

Rapunzel had a secret she was keeping from her parents and Eugene, but it was out in the open where everyone could see it. There had not been much space in the tower to hide things, so she got good at hiding things in plain sight.

She loved Eugene, so very much. She was so glad he had saved her from Mother. Making that terrible promise to Mother was the only way she knew to save him. He loved her so much, that he couldn't allow her to keep that promise and so he cut her hair and she lost her power to heal. She missed that so often. There were so many people that were sick or injured and she couldn't heal them now and it broke her heart.

But it also changed her. She moved differently, she walked differently, but most especially she looked different. Looking into the mirror was an adventure of its own. She knew it was herself, but it was always a surprise first thing in the morning to see herself with short, brown hair.

She couldn't hate Eugene for cutting it, he had no choice really, but there was certain wistfulness she had sometimes for her hair. The way it would fall behind her like a cape or a backdrop, she always thought that was a very defining look. Something special that was hers alone.

So she had painted herself as she had always looked in the mirror back in the tower. It was to show her parents what she had looked like, which is somehow so different. But her secret was in where and how she had painted it.

It was across from her mirror and if she stood in a certain place she could see herself with her blonde hair streaming down behind her,

and if she believed really hard,

she could imagine she was herself again.

But her hand would still come back empty.

zzzZZZzzz

Author's Note: Thoughts, feelings?

Review!


	34. Chap 34 Lost Things

Chap 34 Lost Things

With HookHand and the others staying in the palace, it was easy for Rapunzel to have him play for some after dinner entertainment. Finally, things were winding down for the night and she sits next to him as he played a soft melody.

"How have you been doing?" she asks.

"This has been great. I've been playing for all sorts of people and they've really loved it. It feels incredible all the time. I've never felt so good for so long ever."

"That's wonderful."

"Yes, it is." Hookhand says fervently.

A few bars pass as he plays.

"I never thought you were the Lost Princess. I guess it should be obvious now. The hair, those eyes. I can guess why Rider fell in love with you. Those eyes are a wonderful place to get lost in."

She gives him a friendly punch in the arm.

"But you're not here to make chit-chat, are you?"

"How could you know?"

He waggles his hook. "I've had this for some time and when someone wants to talk about it, it's obvious. So what do you want to know, how it happened or what it feels like? My guess, is how it feels?" he glances at her hair.

She touches her short brown hair "Oh, well, yes. Because it was such a part of my body. I did things with it opening hatches, grabbing things from across the room, climbing and such. I barely recognize myself in the mirror. I keep grabbing for it but its gone and it is always a surprise. Like it shouldn't be missing."

"Yeah, that's about right. I used to knock things over a lot because a hook doesn't work like a hand and it felt all wrong. For a long time it still felt like the hand was there, it would even hurt. I don't know why, that's just the way it is."

"Do you ever get used to it?"

"Sorta, I mostly don't have to look to do things anymore, but sometimes I still do it the old way. I expect that hair will not be the same as a hand, it isn't like a hand, more like a glove maybe."

"Maybe."

"Hey, kid, you're young and strong, you'll adapt, we all do. Not much choice really." HookHand said with a shrug.

"No, not much." Rapunzel said, she saw her parents gesturing her to come. "Thank you, that helped, and thank you for rescuing Eugene so he could rescue me." She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

HookHand got a silly smile on his face, but kept playing, "Good night, Princess."

***Author's Note: This has a very Casablanca feel to it and it just feels right.

Here are two people who lost a part of themselves, they were going to talk about at some point. HookHand is rough around the edges but he's good and smart too.

Thoughts, feelings, review!


	35. Chap 35 A Light Connection

Chap 35 Connection

* * *

Eugene and Rapunzel on the plaza balcony he is pointing at something as the queen comes out. She gives her daughter a hug on the opposite side as Pascal and asks what he was pointing at, seeing nothing out there right now. "Oh, I was showing her where we were in the little boat when the lanterns went up. It was to be the best day of her life and I wanted to make sure she had the best seat."

The queens cocked her head and her eyes unfocused as she remembered back to that night. Comforting her husband just before the launch, coming outside and lifting it free of its ribbons together, the plaza coming alive with lanterns, ships launching lanterns too and a little boat all alone on the water.

"Yes, I remember , I thought it odd that there was a little boat out there all by itself. That was you?"

"Yes, it was. She almost capsized us when she saw the first one."

The queen smiled. There were a lot of firsts that day for Rapunzel.

Rapunzel adds, "It was so amazing and wonderful and beautiful. At one point the water was so still and the lanterns everywhere it was like being in the middle of a giant cloud of giant fireflies.

There was one that came down and almost crashed into us. I remember it particularly because it had the sun sigil on it, I gave it a hand and tossed it way up into the sky."

"Wait, it had the sun sigil on it on the sides. "

"Yes." they both said.

"That was ours. The King and I have a special one made with the sigil painted on it all the rest are plain."

"So that means…"

"It was…"

Pascal covered his ears just in time for the squee.

* * *

zZzZz

*Author's Note: I could't let this go without comment. So close and yet so far, not to have them make the connection would be kinda sad, so we let them find out about it.


	36. Chap 36 Rapunzel and the Blades of Grass

Chap 36 Rapunzel and the Blades of Grass, Improved

It was almost my 13th birthday and Mother was going out again. Sliding down my hair to the ground. It was long enough now for her to go up and down, which was good, the rope she had been using was getting worn in places and I was beginning to worry for Mother's safety, but I had to be sure to brace myself first, Mother was heavy. I watched her leave and gave her a wave just like we always did when she reached the Exit and then she was gone.

I wish I could go through the Exit.

I unhooked my hair and just leaned there for a while looking at the sky, giving the cloud shapes names as my hair fluttered in the breeze, not that there was much of one today. The sky was always wonderful. I wave to some of my bird friends and we chat about seeds and flying.

I wish I could fly.

I had been so good these past weeks. There had been no punishments and Mother was happy. I was hoping that maybe she would take me to see the floating lights that would light up the sky tomorrow night. I wasn't sure if I was brave enough to ask yet. Outside was so scary from what Mother said but she was able to good Outside and safely return.

I wish I was brave.

"Well, time to start on chores." I said out loud for no good reason and began to haul up my hair. Wondering if I should start with the dusting or the moping just to shake things up. And at the very end, caught in my hair was something green.

I couldn't believe it.

I had gotten something from Outside all by myself. I got something from Outside!

I dropped my hair and got down on the floor to just look at it. My hair could now reach all the way down to the ground. What a wonder that was by itself, but now, to have grass was amazing.

I had asked Mother about the things I could see from the window, but this is the first time I had ever seen it up close. I just lay on my stomach, head on my hands, and looked at it for a while, how wondrous it was.

I stalked closer and slowly plucked them out of my hair.

I cupped the few grasses that I had in my hand and just looked at them. They weren't like anything else. They were like chives which Mother brought home occasionally, but chives were round and grass is flat.

I wondered if you could eat grass, but after thinking about it, probably not. We had all that grass around the tower but Mother never brought it up for cooking and eating. Mother said so much of Outside was dangerous. I didn't want to poison myself by eating any to taste it.

I cupped the grass in my hands and brought them up to my face and breathed in. It smelled just like the color green should. It was earthy without the sharpness of that chives had. It smelled round. Which I thought odd because it was flat, I wondered if the smells had gotten mixed up somehow, chives smelled flat but were round.

Running my fingertip up and down a grass let me discover something new, it was smooth in one direction but rough in the other.

Looking at it in the light I could see that there was something on the surface of the grass but I couldn't see well enough to tell exactly what it was. I wondered if it was like grass. From my tower I always thought that grass was sort of like the fabric of my dress, because it flowed in the wind like my dress did. Could there be a girl in a tower on this grass looking at yet more grass?

I got a shiver at where _that_ thought could go. I might explore it later, but first chores. I stuffed the grass into my pocket and quickly did my chores, being especially careful to brush my hair all clean again. Mother did not approve of dirty hair and I needed to be extra careful so the window wouldn't be locked and I could see the floating lights. Mother would be home soon, and I wanted to keep the grass hidden from her, so I use my hair to climb where she cannot reach.

I wonder if the girl in the tower on the grass has as a good a Mother as mine.

I wish I could talk to her.

...

"Rapunzel, let down your hair."

"Coming, Mother."

I throw my hair out the window and get a good grip on the post beside the window as Mother climbs up. I keep a grip on my hair too, Mother is nice enough not to jerk on it, that hurts, a lot.

She climbs in the window and lets go of my hair. I reel it in as she cries, "I got you a surprise, colored chalks for your birthday. Happy Birthday." She produces a box, which I open, it has a dozen thick colored rods of a lightweight material. This is something new. I rub my finger on a green one and some of it gets on my finger.

"Thank you, Mother. This is new."

"I know you are running out of space on the walls. I don't want you painting on the floor, but you can use chalk on the floor and it will clean up when you mop the floor."

"Oh, okay." I say happily, there are some possibilities in this chalk. It won't be permanent like my murals, but it would be great to try out ideas that I am working on.

I flounce over and give her a hug and our little ritual of love begins.

"I love you, very much."

"I love you more."

"I love you most."

I am so happy that I pleased Mother and she got me the chalk. She isn't nice all the time, but then neither am I, though I try so hard. I love hugging her, I don't get enough hugs sometimes. Hugging my pillow or my doll isn't the same. Sometimes I pull my chair next to hers so my elbow touches her arm, it isn't as good as a hug, but it seems to help.

I wish I could get more hugs.

I experiment with the chalk. It isn't very good at detail work, but I can cover a large area very quickly. It doesn't mix like paint does so I can't change the colors I have. It also uses up fast. So I have to be careful, and not use too much all at once. There is never enough yellow to do a really good job on my hair. I don't know if Mother will get more soon, so I try not to like it too much.

I have an idea, but I need Mother to be gone. She mustn't know about the grass. I've hidden it on the highest beam, where she can never get to. It will be safe there. But she needs to be gone so I can get it. She'd punish me if she saw me doing something dangerous.

…

Mother sleeps well tonight. I oiled the hinges specially during chores today so she wouldn't wake up. I watch the floating lights in the sky.

How different they are from the stars. The stars move in certain predictable paths for the most part. There are streaks often that are like stars sliding across the sky, but they are fast not slow like the floating lights. The floating lights are something else. They move together, but not like birds. Some disappear and others keep floating.

How I yearn to know what they are. I reach out, wanting to catch one, but I can't reach. They feel important for some reason, but I don't know why, they beckon to me, I want to step through the window, to fly to them like my bird friends could. Someday. Mother hints we may leave the tower and explore Outside. I hope it will be soon, my heart aches to know what those lights are.

I wish I knew why the floating lights are so important.

But Mother won't talk about them. I wonder why, but I learned long ago not to ask certain kinds of questions.

...

Mother's gone for food, finally. I know exactly what I want to do with the chalk. I will use up almost all of the green and I am hoping it will be worth it. I'll get my dress dirty, but it is washing day tomorrow, so it shouldn't be a problem. I might be punished, but it should only be a little one.

I go up to my room and open the window, I move my bed over some so I have a clear spot where I can look up and see the sky.

I scribble a big green patch on the floor and color on some flowers.

Then I sit on it looking up through my windows up into the sky.

I take the handful of grass from out of my pocket, they are turning brown around the edges. I rub the 7 blades of grass that is all I have, around my toes and along my feet and ankles and legs, it tickles, I smile but this is serious. Between my fingers and around my arms. Along my lips, cheeks and ears. I cup them to my nose and breathe in really deep.

I lay back and throw out my arms and try to bring it together all at once:

With all my mind, I remember.

With all my heart, I hope.

With all my strength, I imagine.

With all my might, I dream.

What laying on grass might really be like.

Author's Note: The first thing Rapunzel does after getting out of the tower is to roll around in the grass and it was just like she dreamed it would be. How could she do that? Maybe like this. A little birthday present her hair got her, like when it picked up Pascal.

Can you remember rolling in the grass? Can you imagine it now? Do you want to do it now?

Totally inspired by 'Waiting and Wondering' by ecila20 deviantart

.com/art/Waiting-and-Wondering-197441972

Yeah, I posted a version in Abusing Hair Power a while ago, but it just seemed to fit here too perfectly not to be part of this story, which you'll see in the next chapter.


	37. Chap 37  A Different Kind of Nightmare

Chap 37 - A Different Kind of Nightmare -

It was dawn.

Eugene poked his head out of his room and looked down the hall. The king and queen were doing the same. The guards looked back and the chambermaid shrugged. It was quiet.

Could it be, wonder of wonders, Rapunzel _not_ having a nightmare for once? Maybe the rosemary tea had taken effect or one of the other anti-nightmare remedies.

Together they padded quietly to Rapunzel's room and the Queen put her ear to the door. Her face fell. She opened the door and Eugene could hear Rapunzel thrashing around on the bed and moaning.

The Queen moved quickly to the bed and gave her daughter a shake. Rapunzel awoke with a gasp, "Oh, mama it's you," and relaxed and gave her a hug.

"Another nightmare, dear?"

"No, not exactly. Just exhausting." yawned Rapunzel. "Eugene and I were rolling around in the grass and flowers. It was a good dream but then most of the nightmares don't start out bad. I like rolling around in the grass."

"When I was 13 my hair could reach the ground and I pulled some up one day. It was so incredible to just smell grass and feel just a few leaves of it against my skin. I used to chalk some of the floor green with little flowers on it and try with all my might to imagine what grass felt like. They are still in my tower, I have a secret place on top of the highest beam that Mother could never find. When I got out of the tower, rolling in the grass was the first thing I did; it was even better then I had imagined." Rapunzel finished with a happy sigh.

"That sounds very nice, dear." said her mama.

The chambermaid brought in a breakfast tray and everyone move to the table. Pascal climbed up on Rapunzel's shoulder as she straightened herself and the bed. The King and Queen were starting with jam toast and Eugene was working his way into a boiled egg. Rapunzel sat down, and Pascal padded down to the table snagging a grape, his favorite snack and matched its purple color.

Watching Eugene spoon another piece of egg into his mouth, she frowned slightly and asked innocently. "Mama, does a dream mean something particular if we weren't wearing clothes?"

The Queen gasped.

Eugene's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as he tried not to spit his egg across the room, slapping a hand across his mouth..

The King jumped up, "Well, now, I-ah-have a meeting with the, um, Captain of the Guard about pying frans, um, frying pans. Eugene, why don't you come with me." He said in a high pitched voice as Eugene nodded enthusiastically turn ing a bright shade of red.

Pascal turned an alarmed shade of red as they bustled out.

"Mama?" Rapunzel asked in a scared voice, her hand fumbling at her shoulder.

Queen Rebecca puts a hand on Rapunzel's arm and gives her a gentle smile. "It's all right, dear. You just surprised us is all, this is something we women _do_ need to talk about, alone."

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Author's Note: Well, she can't have nightmares _every_ night, but now everyone else will have one. {grin}

I just love how she rolls around in the grass when she gets out of the tower the first time. Of course, she's going to dream about that at some point, good for her.

It's also a 'first' that the Queen can have with her daughter that would make a special bond in their relationship. She loves and cares about Rapunzel so much and is level-headed enough not to twist it up to for her own benefit, like a certain someone else.

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	38. Chap 38  Choices

Chap 38 - Choices -

Eugene is with Rapunzel in her room. The door is open. The guard and maid outside.

Rapunzel is brushing her short brown hair, in front of her big mirror, still wearing her tower dress. They are getting ready for a meeting with some ambassadors from the surrounding kingdoms before the coronation.

Eugene is there to just be with her. It felt good just to be in the same room as she was. He didn't know why, and didn't really care.

He was impressed by the paintings she had done so quickly: The Tower, Gothel, herself, and flanking her bed were life-sized portraits of her parents on one side and Max, Pascal and himself on the other. He noticed that she was taking extra time on his, he was hoping it wasn't done, all that grey where his body was made it look like he was wearing armor, which made him feel funny for some reason, but he wasn't sure if it was a good or a bad funny.

"Why are you making such a big fuss over your hair?" asks Eugene, he is looking at the self-portrait she had of herself with blonde hair.

"Believe, me this is not anywhere near a big fuss. It used to take me over an hour to brush my hair before. This is pretty great, it only takes a couple of minutes. In any case, brushing my hair relaxes me." Rapunzel answers with a soft, dreamy smile.

He got up and stood near the mirror where he could see both Rapunzels at the same time. How could the same woman look so different?

"I am so sorry."

"What for?" Rapunzel paused in her brushing.

"For having done this to you." He moved close and ran his hand through her hair.

"You didn't have much choice."

"I did. I could have let you heal me and then found you again later."

"Even if you did, I wouldn't have gone with you. I promised to stay with Mother."

"I would have killed her when I found you again."

"And I would have tried to save her, and I would have, even if you killed her, I could have brought her back. I had promised."

"I know, you never break your promises. I keep thinking I would have found a way to stay with you, even if it meant to become her slave too, just so I could be with you."

Rapunzel looked down, she was gripping the brush, she had chosen it since it looked so much like Mother's brush, with both hands. Why was it so hard to stop loving Mother? She had done such terrible things to her, but not always, there were times it seemed like love, even compared to what her real parents are doing to show their love to her.

"You're different then you were when I first came to your tower." said Eugene, oh so gently. Running the back of his fingers along the side of the face.

Rapunzel panicked a little, had he found her secret painting? She looked to him and her mirror and the painting of herself behind her, with her golden hair. The secret painting that she used to feel more like herself, when she imagined she still had her hair, even though she wasn't sure if it was helping anymore.

Twisting the brush in her hands she said, "No, I'm not. I used to be a girl in a tower, now I am going to be the Princess of Corona. I used to only have to worry about keeping the tower clean, my hair brushed and Mother happy. Now I have so much more."

She went to the window where they could see the kingdom. "I knew I was bigger then the tower, I couldn't have stayed there much longer anyway, but this is so much bigger then I ever dreamed, so much more." She finished quietly.

Eugene came to her and put his arm around her as he saw the look in her eyes that reminded him of their time on the little boat just before the lanterns went up, "and its terrifying, isn't it?"

Rapunzel nodded as she put her arms around her new dream and hugged him tight.

"You're my new dream."

"And your are mine." they said to each other, in their alternative way of saying "I love you." It was so hard inside of Rapunzel's mind to figure out how to love her parents and Eugene. Mother had mixed things up so badly inside of her. She didn't have the words to describe it to anyone yet. Mama called then snakes in the grass of her soul and they kept finding new ones. They made life hard; giving them a name made them manageable, a little.

All the people she meets say they love her, and it scares her so much. She wants to be a good princess to them all, but she just doesn't know how. After the first day they limited the amount of time she spent out with people. She understood, she had felt so strange and then fallen asleep while talking to mama and papa, how could she fall asleep while telling an exciting story?

She wanted to meet everyone, to help everyone, to be the best princess ever. But, she acknowledged, she had grown up with just one other person in her life, just getting used to being around hundreds of people was its own challenge.

Papa was right, you couldn't learn how to steer a sloop, if you didn't first learn to steer a skiff, and it takes time. Well, at least she understood when he had shown her what a sloop and a skiff were. She felt so stupid all the time. She didn't feel like she knew anything anymore.

Sometimes, in the afternoon before dinnertime, it got to be so hard to keep going. She just felt like she was going to fly apart and never be able to find all the pieces. She wasn't sure who she was any more. Even looking in the mirror was hard sometimes, knowing she didn't look like how she remembered herself. Later today she was going to be crowned Princess of Corona, but what did that _mean_?

Quiet time alone in the afternoons helped, painting or napping or reading or talking to Pascal, who was so understanding. She wasn't sure if she liked being alone in her room when there was so much to do and learn, but it was the only way she could feel like herself again. It wasn't like the tower, she could leave and return as she wanted and that wasn't so bad, but she didn't want to stay in her room too long.

She wouldn't trade a tower for a room in a palace, if all it was was change in prisons. Most terrifyingly, what if she _couldn't _leave, because one of Mother's snakes wanted her to stay, or worst of all because she herself wanted to stay?

The gardens were nice, but only for a little while, she wanted so badly to know what all the plants were, the Botany book had been nice but real plants and flowers made it different somehow, but it was so hard because there was so much to learn.

She wanted to know everything, all at once.

Rolling in the grass was still fun, and so was the swing.

Mama and Papa promised lessons to help her soon, after the Coronation and the celebration. She believed them. She trusted them. She was trying to love them like she had Mother, but she couldn't, it wasn't the same. Was she broken? Had cutting her hair changed her that profoundly? She didn't think so, picking leaves off of a plant didn't change it into a rock, but picking all the leaves killed a plant.

Rapunzel knew Mama and Papa loved her, she _knew_ that. They came every morning to save her from the nightmares, which helped so much, how could she not love them? They helped keep her safe from the foods she was learning to eat. It scared her to know Mother had been right in so many ways, that the world was dangerous, but you could learn how to be careful and not be hurt.

After dinner they sit together on the sofa and just hold each other and talk quietly. Hookhand playing on the piano. Eugene nearby. It feels so good, and she doesn't even have to earn them. Mama corrects her gently and lovingly when she makes mistakes, but there is always something else to do wrong.

Rapunzel loved Eugene so profoundly, just like she did Mother, well almost. Whenever he was gone a tiny voice, that sounded like Mother's, would ask, if he had left her like he did on the beach. She always countered that he had come back, even from the dead to be with her. But she would be so relieved when she saw him again, and smile to him, and the panic and the pain would fade. Why did it feel like her skin got too small when he was away for a while?

Rapunzel, her parents and Eugene had worked out ways to express their love with other words for now. And in time it would be worked out, maybe she just had to find the right word or song. Hopefully the lessons would help her find it.

But to tell them of Mother's ritual of love was so hard, it was special, so personal, so very, very personal. She gave Eugene an extra hug.

"Your Highness, it is time to change." came the voice of her chambermaid from behind them.

* * *

Author's Note: Rapunzel is skating so close to insanity it is terrifying. Heck, she's rail-grinding the Cliffs of Insanity. The betrayals of Eugene and Gothel and then loss of Gothel and Eugene and her hair deeply effected her and so did leaving the tower, but she did that voluntarily.

She lost almost all her anchors. She has established some new ones and now she has Eugene, Pascal, Max, her dress and and even the Pub Thugs to help hold herself together, and of course her parents, but sometimes it is a bare thing. The transition Rapunzel is going through is so rough, she is becoming a new and different person.

After that first night at the palace they have stayed away from the words 'I love you.' Which is so hard, but they are trying to make it easier for Rapunzel. It has become obvious that she still loves Gothel even though Gothel betrayed her so profoundly and utterly. The Queen desperately wants to hear those words from her daughter, but loves her enough to wait and is determined enough to do whatever it takes to help her daughter.

But the things Gothel did to her, left snakes in the grass of her soul, emotional land-mines really, since they didn't have land-mines back then, that they are dealing with. And some of them are terrible.

The sequel deals with this in detail.

She'll be painting Eugene in full armor, he is her knight in shining armor. She'll even paint the Pub Thugs, but not at full scale. They'll be cherubs along the ceiling.

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	39. Chap 39 The Coronation of Rapunzel

Chap 39 The Coronation of Rapunzel, Princess of Corona

Rapunzel was kneeling on a little purple pillow in front of the entire kingdom. She had her head down, humbly, as the ceremony continued. The archbishop pontificating about honor and duty and Corona.

And Princess Rapunzel of Corona was biting her lip, trying desperately not to giggle. Papa was going to boom her full name out in front of the entire kingdom.

Her parents were on their thrones behind her. From the corner of her eye she could see Eugene, and in the other corner were all her dear friends from the Snuggly Duckling. They looked almost dashing in tunics. Dear HookHand was up front, he had been invited for so many parties in the city to perform, he was also good to talk to, it helped so much. BigNose was crying. Attila still had flour on him, he had been baking cupcakes for 2 days straight, he looked rather handsome without his helmet and a shave and haircut, that mustache just didn't work at all.

To distract herself, she contemplated her dress. It really was amazing. She had been fitting for it all week. Rapunzel had come to the castle that had a whole closet full of clothes for her that didn't fit. But the seamstresses had gotten right to work and altered them all over night. But the coronation gown had been the focus of everyone's attention.

Rapunzel found the dressmaker to be fussy and preoccupied and she seemed to be more concerned about how she would look if Rapunzel didn't look good. The main color had to be purple, of course, but the dressmaker had surprised her with the care taken for the bodice, to accent her face and skin, and especially her eyes. A rich lavender brocade was used there.

The sleeves were puffier then she was used to, but not too bad. It was heavy, and it just lay differently on her then the clothes she had made for herself.

What had really amazed her was how quickly it came together. She had thought it was done two days ago, but this morning it was like it was a completely different dress. They had embroidered it in ways she had not expected.

The royal dressmaker had dismissed her own dress out of hand, but she had noticed that the seamstresses had passed it around, cooing over the embroidery she had so painstakingly worked on. It wasn't really finished, all of her creations were open-ended that way. She was touched that they liked it. She liked that dress, because it fit her so well, it had taken ages to work out how to do it just right to hug her all over and not chafe anywhere. Some of her new dresses still needed some tweaking. And she had made it herself with fabric Mother had gotten for her. They had made so many candles to be able to get it.

Wearing her tower dress let her feel like herself. It was something familiar in a strange and wonderful place that she knows is her new home. Painting the walls of her room helped a little, but it was all new and not familiar really. Her dress was something familiar, something hers, something real.

The seamstresses had actually given her a tour of her dress that morning, while the dressmaker was attending her mama. They had embroidered ships and whales and fish and the sun sigil, of course. All with their various symbolisms. But she had noticed that the girls were getting at turns shy and agitated as they got closer to the bottom of the dress.

When they revealed the bottom hem, Rapunzel had gasped, and tears filled her eyes. They had embroidered a tower, just like the one she had painted on her wall with the paints her thoughtful thief has left as a surprise sometime during their second day here. She was so touched, it had a gold thread running from it representing her golden hair that ran all the way around the hem and ended in a curl. It was beautiful and thoughtful, they honored her time in the tower. So many people loved her so much, doing wonderful little things like this and she tried so hard to love them back. Rapunzel hugged each one in turn.

"Oh, no. Oh, no. Papa was talking now. He's going to say it soon!" Rapunzel thought, wanting to squirm but didn't, as it was almost time for her papa the King to put the crown on her head, he was going to boom out her whole name. She was bitting her lip hard now, giggling would not be appropriate for a princess in the middle of her coronation.

Why did she have to have such a big name?

Her parents were so thoughtful and kind. This morning, after another screaming nightmare (the Stabbington brothers and their sack) and breakfast, they had told her about what the ceremony was going to be like and papa told her, her full, true name.

Rapunzel's mouth had fallen open, how could anyone have such a humongous name? It was nearly as long as her hair had been. Papa had looked a little crestfallen, but then Eugene started giggling, and then so did she and then mama and finally papa did too.

If Eugene giggled now, she would _kill_ him!

Princesses do _not_ giggle during important state functions, especially not her own coronation, Rapunzel thought primly.

Oh, look that tile over there is cracked and it looks kinda, sorta like, well, nothing at all, really. Rapunzel wanted to sigh, but didn't that wouldn't be proper either. None of her tricks for distracting herself that she had made up in the tower were working.

She bit her lip some more.

Her papa, King Leonard of Corona was booming the final words, "I crown thee, Rapunzel Solara Rebecca Agatha Menolly Von Sonnenshein, as Princess of the Realm of Corona, the Lost Princess Returned. With all the rights, privileges, duties and responsibilities commiserate therewith."

Rapunzel smiled as she felt her papa place her beautiful, sparkly crown on her head.

"All hail Rapunzel, Princess of Corona!" Called the herald.

"All hail Rapunzel, Princess of Corona!" echoed those in the palace.

And the cheers of all the kingdom outside echoed from the hills to the sea and they let fly thousands of sky lanterns.

* * *

zZzZzZz

Author's Note: There you have it, Rapunzel's true full name.

Princess Shahrazad and readingisawsome asked if I had used her real name, way back in chapter 12, at that time I hadn't, she didn't have one yet. I just wanted to hang a lampshade on it to get it out of the way. Her name was Rapunzel and that was enough, wasn't it?

Little did I know she needed and had a real name. :)

Then just hours later, while making lunch, her name fell on me. I could barely write it down fast enough. I was laughing too, because it is just too perfect for her. I hope the wait wasn't too hard on you, but I think it was worth it. It's not the wedding scene, but pretty close, but the princesses never get officially crowned and that is fun too.

The story isn't over yet, there are a few more things that have to happen, before this story has its happily ever after.

P.S. Disney announced that Rapunzel and Eugene are getting married in the spring of 2012

P.P.S. It looks like she's really going to be crowned on October 2, 2011

P.P.P.S. I did it first :P And she got a real name. Double :P

P.P.P.P.S. For those of you worried about Rapunzel's sanity, she's going to be fine…eventually. :) The first week was kinda hectic. Eugene didn't need to get drunk to not remember most of it and neither does Rapunzel.

* * *

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	40. Chap 40  Back to the Tower

Chap 40 - Back to the Tower

"Rapunzel. Your mother and I were wondering if you were ready to go back and show us where you lived," gently asked her papa, King Leonard of Corona. As they sat together on a fish embroidered sofa after dinner, so they could be close for a while as they usually did in the evenings.

It had been two weeks since the Return of the Lost Princess. The celebrations were over, detailed stories were shared of each of their lives. Things were settling down. Rapunzel was feeling much better. The chaos of the celebration had been overwhelming at times. But she had had so many wonderful experiences.

One of the experiences that had gone not so well, was when they had shared some brandy the evening after the Coronation. Eugene had drunk the small amount of amber liquid in one gulp. She always watched how other people ate things now, so she wouldn't hurt herself. So she had emulated him.

Bad idea, she had thought her head and chest were going to explode or something. She had coughed so hard, she had to sit down. And it tasted worse then paint, how anyone could drink it, much less enjoy, it was beyond her.

Eventually she had calmed down and Mama explained that it is more enjoyable to take small sips. She'd said that she'd rather not try any more. The others seemed to enjoy it, but then something odd happened, it felt like the bindings on her mind were coming loose. She felt unsteady. She had clung to her mama as they cuddled on the sofa, hoping the feeling would go away, and after an hour or so it did. Mama had put her to bed, and she had felt fine in the morning, well, after she calmed down from the nightmare (an old one for once, the thunderstorm in the tower), but it had been very scary, it felt like her mind was unravelling.

But in the week since, things were much calmer and she was feeling much better. Except for the screaming nightmares in the morning and sitting together after dinner, they hadn't established much of a routine yet and there were hardly anyone new to meet but more meetings to attend. She got some extra rest and time to work on her paintings. They helped a lot, she felt protected in her room, now that everyone was painted in. Eugene looked rather protective in his armor. She was hoping it would help the nightmares, but it hadn't so far.

She was talking with a tutor, trying to map out what she knew and didn't know. Her ignorance had embarrassed her, but Mama had consoled her that Mother had tried to keep her in the tower by keeping her ignorant of so much. She wished that Mother had really loved her. Maybe they could have worked out something.

She was so disappointed in Mother so often lately. Mama, Papa and Eugene were showing her what love was really like and it was nothing like what Mother shared with her, but just like what she shared with Mother.

Based on the description of where it was, the Lock Guard had found the tower and secured it without disturbing it. In case their charge had a desire to go back to it from time to time. They reported back to the king and queen what they had found and done.

Princess Rapunzel took a breath. She stilled her hands as they sought the hair that was no longer there. "Yes, I think so. You should see where I lived, where I grew up. You've shown me so much about yourselves by showing me around the castle and the kingdom. You should know me better by me doing the same for you."

But the queen noticed that her hands were worrying her skirt. Then Rapunzel smiled "Oh, I can show you my gallery, and the candles. Oh and my guitar, lute and sewing. Yes, I must show you all of that." She was getting all excited, but then turned a little shy, "And if you wouldn't mind I'd like to bring my things here. We left in such a hurry to help Maximus and meet you, we didn't bring anything. I miss my clothes and others things. Not that what clothes yo u've given me are bad or anything, but they just aren't what I am used to." she felt the need to explain.

"Yes, of course, dear. You should have your things, so you can feel more at home." said Queen Rebecca kindly.

…

The next day they rode out to the tower, Rapunzel riding Max who lead the way. It was an easy journey, but the queen noticed her daughter getting quieter as they got near, though there were a lot of birds around them, they had missed Rapunzel. They passed under the vine curtain that had so effectively hid the tower for all those many years.

"Oh, it's so beautiful!"

Everyone looked at Rapunzel, who blushed.

"Well, I never really saw it from the outside. When Mother and I came back it was dark, and the first time I left I didn't bother to look back since I wanted to leave so much."

"Ha, You should have seen her, by the time I got to the bottom of the tower she was running as hard as she could for the exit. You'd have thought she'd stolen a crown or something," he smiled broadly.

"And the last time I couldn't look back, it was too painful." Eugene's smile dropped off his face with a thud.

...

Rapunzel got down from Max, her eyes on the cloak, dress and shoes that still lay at the foot of the tower, held down by a pile of dust, all that was left of the person she had called Mother for 18 years. She knelt down next to it and her Mama kneeling next to her.

Rapunzel looked at her mama, her real mother, with tears her eyes. "Mama, please understand, and help me understand how I feel. I spent 18 years loving her and calling her Mother and trying to please her. I loved her. When I understood what she had done to me I hated her, but at the very end when she was screaming, I wanted to take away her pain. When she tripped and fell from the window I tried to catch her, because I didn't want her to go away." Tears flowed down her face.

"As far as you knew she was your mother, and you are a good, loving person. You want, no, you _need_ to help others. As you have told us about how she raised you, how she was continually trying to crush your spirit, there were times I felt white hot hate." The queen said ferociously.

The king put an hand on her shoulder, she put her own hand on top of his and looking lovingly at her beloved daughter, "But I look at how you are, how you treat others, and how capable you are. And in that I feel some gratitude to her because she did raise you to be good. You are a truly good person. There is no shame in feeling as you do."

They hugged tightly.

"Would it be okay if we took these in, and put them on her bed? Just leaving them here doesn't seem right."

"Yes, that would be fine." The women worked together to fold the clothes and carry them up.

…

"Rapunzel, be careful of all the glass on the floor." Mama said as they climbed up through the trapdoor.

"Yes, mama."

Rapunzel padded, barefoot, over to the nook where Gothel had slept and place the folded clothes tenderly on the end of the bed. As she took a deep breath thru her nose, the smell of her tower caused a flood of memories. There was so much she remembered now and yet it wasn't really home anymore, either.

"Oh my, _this_ was your hair?" the queen was kneeling and holding a loop of the limp brown hair that covered so much of the floor, having been told she had had 70 feet of hair was very different from seeing it in real life. "How ever did you ever get around?"

"It did seem to get in the way all the time. And I spent so much time brushing it and brushing it and brushing it." She moved to get the brush, she stopped as she saw the chair and the stool and her face fell.

"What is it, dear?" asked her mama.

"Well, whenever Mother wasn't feeling young enough she would have me set out her chair and my stool by the fireplace, and she would brush my hair as I sang. She always did so much for me and it felt so good to be able to do something for her. But now I know that she was just using me, my hair to stay young. Oh, it's complicated." Rapunzel shook her head.

"So what should we do with the hair?" Eugene asked very gently.

"Well, it hasn't got any power anymore. So it isn't worth taking, is it?"

"But it was yours."

"It was and all my life it made me feel special. But I am special now in a different way. I am the Princess of Corona." Rapunzel smiled.

"I still have the Lock that was left in your crib, so I don't need another one." The Queen said as she touched the place where the vial lay on the end of its necklace.

"We should leave it on Mother's bed. She was the one who wanted it so much." Rapunzel decided in a quiet voice, and she never touched her hair again.

"Let's clean up this glass." said the Queen.

With a grateful look for the change of subject Rapunzel dashed off for the broom and dustpan as the Queen looped the hair into a neat pile.

"What is this face doing here on the floor." The king said as he swept up some glass. There was the red face with the pointy teeth.

"That was a face Mother painted to scare me when she was telling me about men with pointy teeth that would come to cut my hair." Rapunzel frowned. "You know, I haven't actually seen any people with pointy teeth."

"There aren't any people with pointy teeth, dear." said her mama.

"Oh, another lie then." It wasn't a question.

As they came to the stairs Eugene stooped down to pick up a large shard of mirror. "This was it, wasn't it."

"What?"

"What I used to cut your hair and this is where I died," as Eugene touched the chain that was still wrapped around the banister "This feels very strange." He gave a shudder.

Rapunzel went around pulling open the draperies and then moved around the tower opening the windows to let in the light. She looked up and frowned, "What's wrong?" asked Eugene.

"Well, without my hair I can't open the upper shutters to let in more light," pointing to the lever high in the rafters.

"Oh, that. No problem." He pulled out a length of rope from his satchel, gave it a twirl and hooked the lever, "If m'lady wishes to do the honors." Rapunzel laughed and pulled on the rope. Light poured in revealing the interior of the tower.

The king was near the center of the tower slowly turning in place amazed at the paintings that completely filled the walls.

As they gathered up the things Rapunzel wanted to take back home, she explained the stories behind the pictures she had painted, some which were quite involved, as she sketched them onto a book so she could be sure to remember them. After explaining her star chart, the King said. "You'll have to meet with the court astronomer, he'd love to see your take on the stars."

The Queen turned to her daughter, "Show me your room, please," the queen asked gently.

"Oh yes, it's up here," Rapunzel padded up the stairs. "This is where I figured out I was the Lost Princess."

Rapunzel twitched the curtain aside and they all crowded into her room.

"I don't know if you can see them, but embedded in all these paintings are the sun your, ah, our sigil has."

The Queen paused at the top of the steps and looked back to where Gothel had slept.

"What is it mama?"

"I didn't expect this to be your bedroom." the queen said slowly.

"Why?"

"From what we know about her need to stay young, I would have expected her to keep this bedroom for herself and put you in the nook. It makes her harder to hate. You have a vanity of your own and a very beautiful bed. Yet she slept in a nook. I think I don't really know as much about her as I thought. She cared about you more that I realized."

"What is this?" they hear from the king. They turned and saw him holding a large head in his hands.

"Oh, I made that, its papier-mâché. I made it from the remains of my old sewing book. It had fallen apart and then the ink wore off the pages. It was something I made just for fun. But it scared poor Pascal" Everyone laughed and Pascal turned an embarrassed pink.

"One of the most fun things I did was read my books." Rapunzel was telling her mama, moving to the shelf which held them.

"I still can hardly believe she taught you to read." said her mama.

"Was that bad?" asked Rapunzel in a worried tone.

"No, not at all. It's just that is … unexpectedly generous of her."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because one of the best ways to keep someone under control is to never teach them to read. That way they have nothing to compare their life to and know that there is a better way. That is why teaching reading is so important to our kingdom. We want our people to know the best way to do things. What books did she give you?"

Rapunzel looked shocked. "Uh, I had a book on Botany, Geology and Cooking. I used to have one on sewing, but it wore out. I liked the cooking one the best because I could actually use it. While I could grow some plants they were usually small flowers that could fit on the windowsill or from the few hanging baskets we had. Geology was almost useless, I could identify all the major features of the rocks surrounding the tower, but I couldn't get close enough to see any details. Mother brought up a few rocks but there's only so much you can do with a small rock at the top of a tower." She smiled sadly at the end. "We were also running too quickly through the canyon by the dam to see more then the fact that it was made up of sedimentary rocks."

The king and queen shared a look.

"What's wrong?"

The queen smiled gently. "Nothing dear. It's just we don't know what you know and don't know. and we're a little surprised at what we are finding out. It's going to take some time and we need to get to know each other and that will take time."

They had moved back to the main room of the tower, Eugene was walking past the window and noticed something. "Um, Rapunzel?"

"Yes, Eugene."

"Does this key really go to your window there?" Still looking at the window.

"Yes, it does." Rapunzel said stoically.

"Why? I was a thief and all, but locking a window at the top of a 50 foot tower seems like overkill, I climbed that and I wouldn't have been able to do it without the arrows. That overhang was a killer." Eugene was looking out the window.

"It wasn't so much to keep people out, but to punish me." Everyone stopped and turned to look at her. The queen moved to be close to her daughter, with a sad face. "She would lock the window so I couldn't be with my bird friends or see the sky, if I did something she didn't like. I often couldn't tell what would set her off. I would have to be extra careful near my birthday, so I would be able to sneak down and see the lanterns."

"Oh." Eugene regretted bring up the key. The King and Queen came and gave their beloved daughter another hug. Eugene could see the look on the Queens face, a look of sick revulsion. directed at Gothel's bed so that Rapunzel couldn't see.

Eugene couldn't stand it. The tower was so beautiful, it couldn't all be full of terrible memories, not, and still have Rapunzel be such as kind, loving person. There had to be some good memories here too. He just had to fine just one pure good memory before they left so this place wouldn't be a terrible memory for her.

All too soon one of the guards came up, saying that it was time to go back to the palace.

"It's odd," Rapunzel said, "but the tower feels so small now."

"Well, is there anything else we need from here?" asked the King.

"Just one last thing," spoke up Eugene, who had an idea for a good memory. He turned to Rapunzel and put his hands on his hips, "Just where did you hide my satchel?"

Rapunzel smiled, "Oh that. I hid it under the bottom stair, it is a little loose and comes out easily. Though I do wonder how Mother found it."

Eugene went over to inspect it. "I don't know, but this was a good hiding place, much better then the pot." He turned grinning.

"Oh, that reminds me, I definitely want the frying pan."

"Ha, you're really good with that frying pan, maybe we should train some of the guards to fight with it."

Everyone laughed.

* * *

Author's Note: At some point Eugene, Rapunzel and her parents needed to go back to the tower to share in Rapunzel's memories, both the good and the bad.

Yes, that key really is on the wall by the window in the movie.

Well, that is almost all of it. My first foray into fanfiction. It turned out a bit bigger then I expected. It's funny, it was supposed to be a few pages, a dozen tops. It's 156 pages! I've never written anything that long before from scratch. I sucked at creative writing in school, or so I was told. But I must congratulate Tangled for bringing this wonder into my life.

It turned out pretty well I think. I've read over it. It has problems, but I definitely got better as an author over time. I started this April 1st and it took until June to finish it up.

One more thing...


	41. Chap 41 Happily Ever After

Chapter 41 - Happily Ever After

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The King is looking at the pile of clothes that was all that was left of Gothel. The person that his daughter still called Mother, and yes he can hear the capital M when she says it. The person he has hated, hated for 18 long, soul-crushing years.

Was it worth it?

He sent the Stabbington brothers to run for freedom, in a way they had made it, they did reach the border in time, but then they died. That hadn't helped any of the pain. Neither did torturing them. Oh, he had just talked to them, but he had seen their faces and knew that he was inflicting pain on them. It had felt so good at the time, it had felt too good, it scared him, more then a little.

He didn't like to think of himself as a vicious man. But that was what he had done, inflicted pain for the sake of causing pain and that was wrong. He and his kingdom tried to live by law and provide human dignity to all even those in prison, because they might be redeemed. True, they sometimes had to die for their crimes, that was the law, but you didn't torture them first and you killed them quickly so they wouldn't suffer and in relative privacy so they could have some dignity in death, and buried them properly. He had been to other kingdoms, where they executed people in front of jeering crowds, all dignity stripped away. He thought it worse for the people then the convicted, it hurt and twisted the people who were part of that, and he didn't want to be part of that, nor his kingdom.

And yet here standing in front of the little coating of dust on the clothes on the bed that was all that was left of Gothel, did the hate matter anymore? From the description Rapunzel had given them it sounded as though her death had been terribly painful. She had died screaming, aging all her years in an instant. He should have, he wanted to, revel, no, wallow in her pain. That she had suffered as much as he did for all those years of separation. He had given up so much of himself in those years, even finally that day when he gave up Hope, he never did give up on Hate.

But all that hate had done nothing to her, but it had done things to him and they were not good things. He looked at the hair, the formerly magic hair that had healed and sustained the Kidnapper, that what was all that was left of the flower that had kept her alive all these centuries, and had saved his wife and daughter.

Once they had a name they had gone to the records of the towns and villages on the coast near where the flower had been found. Gothel had not been a very common name, they had tracked her through time, eliminating many others of the same name, but they had found a birth record in the church archives that didn't match a death record, it was over 500 years old.

Somehow she had kept the flower hidden all these centuries, but somehow it was known and rumored to exist and so they could find it. It must have been a terrible loss when he had it found and brought to heal his wife. But she had a choice to die or to steal a child.

He understood the will to live, having almost drowned, more then once, an occupational hazard of being the ruler of a seafaring nation. They had made a new wanted poster from the painting Rapunzel had made of Gothel , they had tracked her these past years, she had visited many villages, trying to keep a low profile, buying and trading for things, but she was too beautiful to go unremarked on.

But this wasn't about Gothel anymore, it was about him. He had to give up Hate. Not just for himself, but for the sake of his family and kingdom.

"Gothel," King Leonard said out loud, addressing the dusty clothes. Rapunzel, Rebecca and Eugene all stopped what they were doing and turned to look at him. "Gothel, for 18 years I have hated you. I hated you as hard as I could, I created diseased imaginings of what I would do to you if I ever caught you. I specifically sought out the most revolting ways possible to hurt you as you hurt us. I was prepared to let my wife have to you to punish in the most horrific manner I have ever heard. But all I did was harm myself and my wife and my kingdom." Queen Rebecca moved next to her husband and wrapped her arms around him as he put his arm around her shoulders.

"Yes, I harmed you by taking your flower, I am sorry. You harmed us by taking our daughter to use, whose magic sustained you." Rapunzel came on his other side "I wanted to harm you back for taking her. It would never end, would it? The hating, the harming. I make a new choice today, to end it, to finally give up Hate."

Tears began to flow down his cheeks. His heart felt warm.

"To give up Harm."

He felt so hot, it was hard to breathe.

"I forgive you."

His heart exploded in light. The terrible weight of his hatred was lifted from his soul. He fell to his knees, bringing his family down with him.

He was so full of love he wanted to hug the whole world, to take away all pain and suffering everywhere, to help everyone be their very best. It felt better then marrying his wife and the birth of their daughter. Even the light of the tower was completely different, as if all the colors were brighter and shinier. He was free.

He looked up and smiled. "I'm free."

The queen could only gasp in astonishment. Her husband had forgiven the Kidnapper! How could he do that! She stolen their daughter, had tried constantly to crush her spirit, to use her only to stay young forever, to keep her trapped here in the tower forever. How could her possibly forgive her? What could be worth that?

She had loved him all these years, and now it felt like he was completely alien.

But she was looking at her husband. The change in him was incredible. She always found him a good man. But looking at his face it was like the years, no decades, had fallen away.

And that smile, he was practically glowing. There was a feeling around her heart that this was the right thing to do and do now.

Should she dare?

Could she even put what she had felt all these years into words?

She could feel the love coming off of her husband in waves, for his sake she had to try.

"Gothel," she began, looking at the clothes. "I hate you. I hate you so much. I hated you so much I would cry myself to sleep at night, just for taking my daughter. I didn't just want you dead, but to kill you myself with my own bare hands and teeth, I wanted to drink your blood."

"When Rapunzel tells me of the terrible things you said to her to crush her spirit, just so you could keep her to yourself, I would go to my private library and scream out my rage. I teased out all the detail I dared from my daughter to revel in the sufferings you had when you died. To savor it."

"But it didn't help, did it? "

The glow around her heart got warmer.

"You may be dead and she may be home, but even if she were still with you she would still be a beautiful, wonderful, loving person that you couldn't keep down. Nothing you did could truly stop her, because she is truly a good person. And that is all I wanted her to be."

She felt Rapunzel's hand in her own now, along with the arm of her husband around her. It felt like her heart was taking up the whole of her chest.

"I forgive you."

Love overcame her like a wave. She couldn't see because of the beautiful bright light of Love over shown everything. As the massive weight of her hatred lifted, she didn't even know she carried, she leaned on her husband to keep from falling over. She felt like she was floating.

Rapunzel saw the good happening to her parents, her real parents, and the amazing feeling in her own heart. "Mother, I never hated you, I just wanted you to love me, like I loved you, without reservation. I didn't understand why or what you were doing, as there was nothing to compare it too."

"I was going to come back. To be with you, to heal you. I've been disappointed in you, since I left, I have seen and experienced real love. Had you loved me and not just my hair, I would have stayed, because I loved you with all my heart."

"I forgive you."

It felt just like when her hair healed but inside, around her heart and multiplied by a thousand times. How amazing. Tears streamed down her cheeks.

Eugene stepped up next to Rapunzel he put his hand on her shoulder, he hadn't really understood what the King had been doing when he started, but right now he could feel it, deep inside.

"Gothel, you killed me. I resented that. I hated what you did to Rapunzel. I hated you. I just wanted to be with Rapunzel, no matter the cost. I paid the ultimate price so she would be free of you, because you loved her hair more then her. I would have kept the secret just to have her love with me always. I would have let her stay with you so you could keep her safe. You killed me out of your selfishness, but had you let love flourish you could have lived forever just like you wanted."

"Gothel, you killed me and I forgive you."

The weight that lifted off of his soul almost lifted him off of his feet. He too crashed to his knees. Love overwhelmed his soul, tears ran down his face.

"Free" he whispered.

Overcome with emotion he put his arms around his beloved Rapunzel. Together all of them hugged, just like when they had first met and wept, not for sadness but for love, happiness and release. They were free and truly, completely, happy, ever after.

Magic hair could heal the body, but only forgiveness can heal the soul.

* * *

Author's Note: This is not the ending I intended or expected to write. I thought I was done when Rapunzel went for the frying pan. A good, solid happy ending.

But I needed this and so do you. In April 2000 a drunk driver killed our first unborn daughter and nearly my wife and I, too. I hated him, I imagined many terrible retributions to be taken out on him, I'm an engineer, I know lots of ways to inflict pain, I've done them to myself by accident, but he died too.

For weeks I festered in my hate. But slowly I realized, I couldn't hurt him, he had paid the ultimate price, what more could I ask for? I was only hurting myself and lashing out at those closet to me.

So I gave up on hate and gave forgiveness. The load that lifted off of my soul was so heavy, and then I was so happy, I was filled with love and warmth, I loved everyone, wanting to give the whole world a hug, everything was beautiful and wonderful, even the hospital food tasted better. For a few days things were amazing, of course, it faded over time, but it is still a good memory.

The Rapunzel, Eugene, and the King and Queen were carrying a lot of hate around and it needed to be dealt with. Even if I didn't realize it. When we first saw Tangled I found myself weeping during the scene with the king and queen before the launch. The is great acting, especially for CG, kudos to the animation team. I don't cry during movies. Even Jessie's Song from Toy Story 2 only made me misty eyed.

I knew there was a good story between the time Rapunzel revives Eugene and the meeting her parents, and also the celebration, but this is the ending they needed, to forgive and to live. I like happy endings and this is as happy as I could make it, even if you are crying, I hope they are happy tears.

I feel that someone out there needs this ending. I hope it helped you, whoever you are. Give up the hate and be filled with love. It really is much better.

You may think you can't live without the hate, but you won't be alive with it.

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If you think this is a good story tell your friend with one of the share buttons or make a Fan recommendation on the TVTropes Tangled Fan Recommended page.


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